


Coffee for Two

by arc_kakusei



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Coffee Shops & Cafés, Alternate Universe - College/University, Boyfriend Clothes - but really pre-boyfriend boyfriend clothes, Fluff, Humor, Light Angst, M/M, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Slow Burn, Unrequited Love
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-12-03
Updated: 2018-03-15
Packaged: 2019-02-09 21:32:39
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 23,058
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12897276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/arc_kakusei/pseuds/arc_kakusei
Summary: Oikawa Tooru works at Pots, a café full of plants and plant-based drinks, while pursuing his degree in astrophysics so that he can finally prove to everyone else that there are definitely aliens out there.Sugawara Koushi balances his social life and studies as well as he can as a pre-med student and falls asleep while studying at Pots one winter evening.This is a story of how they make each other's lives terribly difficult and wonderful at the same time(while everyone else spectates and meddles with the best intentions)(because all forms of love are suffering and solace).





	1. pale moonlight

**Author's Note:**

  * For [sohvia](https://archiveofourown.org/users/sohvia/gifts), [rumandraisins](https://archiveofourown.org/users/rumandraisins/gifts).



> This is the result of my reading so many inspiring HQ stories and interacting with amazingly wonderful authors! 
> 
> Special mentions go to sohvia's "Yugen" and rumandraisin's "but with a whimper" c: You both are such talented writers and I've been meaning to do you both justice with this - I do hope I succeed, regardless of how long it takes!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa and Suga meet.

“Tetsu-chan, do we have to scrape that old man off the sofa over there?”

Oikawa’s plaintive question caught his roommate’s attention and directed it towards the silver-haired figure curled into the arm of the sofa near the fireplace at Pots, the café where he and Kuroo both worked part-time in order to stave off the ever-looming threat of tuition and rent.

Kuroo turned his head to glance over at the area in question before laughing. “Nah, leave him be. It’s getting close to finals, he probably needs all the sleep he can get.” He waved his soap-covered hand flippantly in the air, shaking his head before returning his gaze to the dishes. “Plus, he’s not an old man. Suga’s in our year.”

Oikawa hummed in thought, elbows on the counter and chin resting on his hands – something he really shouldn’t be doing at any point for the sake of image, but there were no patrons of the café left at this hour to care enough about reporting him to their manager, Ukai. Not that they ever would – he was a delight that sometimes spoiled his favorite returnees with free refills. “I’ve never met him – which is saying something, since I’m pretty sure I’ve met everyone and their mothers from working here.”

“He rooms with Daichi and since he’s pre-med, he sticks to their apartment most of the time, from what I’ve heard. Not that I blame him - has to be a pain, lugging all those books everywhere.”

Kuroo’s voice carried over the gentle clinking of mugs and plates in the sink. They’d played rock-paper-scissors at the beginning of their shared shift to see who’d get stuck with the tail-end chores, and Kuroo had found himself eating yet another loss. He always insisted Oikawa was cheating, but after living with Kuroo for years and having the same deciding game for the dishes in the apartment, Oikawa simply knew he preferred scissors. Of course, he let himself lose once in a while so that Kuroo wouldn’t catch on. 

“Oh, Daicchi’s roommate.” A lightbulb went off in Oikawa’s memory, along with Daichi’s voice saying something along the lines of ‘it’s just Daichi, where are you even getting the extra syllable from?’ “I’ve heard him mention he had one once or twice. Suga-chan, huh?”

Oikawa straightened up, taking note of the study materials on the low table in front of the sofa Suga was passed out on. Indeed, there were quite a few thick texts and loose papers littering the table, neat handwriting filling the pages and margins with colored highlighter streaks here and there. The flames crackling lowly in the fireplace cast a weak glow over the overall stark whiteness of the sheets, leading Oikawa over to the fireplace to throw some more wood in it.

“I’m just wondering why he’s here today of all days.” Kuroo moved on to drying the dishes with a clean towel. “Daichi always makes it easy for him to study at their apartment.”

“Change of scenery, probably?” Not that Oikawa could say much on that front – studying astrophysics had him chained to his own desk in the apartment when he wasn’t glued to the computers in the lab, and he tended not to care for the hassle of relocating, either. He glanced at the quaint analog clock hanging over the fireplace, embedded in a wreath worthy of the holiday season with the hands approaching the midnight hour.

He heard Kuroo’s relieved sigh as he finished the dishes, the taller man moving to the employee back room while shucking off his vividly red apron – a personal choice, since Ukai didn’t care what color it was as long as they had and wore one while working. He came back to the front while shrugging on a dark wool coat, his fingers working at the buttons as he spoke. “Either way, I’ve got to head out now – I promised Kou and Keiji I’d join Shitty Movie Night once I got off work. Sorry to run off on you, but you can handle closing up, yeah?”

Oikawa scoffed at the mention of Kuroo’s two boyfriends. “Sounds like Boku-chan just roped you and Akacchi into it. Don’t worry about it – who do you think you’re talking to?” He flipped his hair and flashed a peace sign with a smirk, what he liked to think was the very picture of confidence.

Kuroo laughed at that picture, leaving an indignant Oikawa in his wake as he made for the door. “Someone who’s burned himself on the coffee pot while flirting way too hard with the customers more times than anyone can count. And it was totally voluntary on my part – Keiji, not so much.” Oikawa could see that – even though the youngest of the three’s relationship was a film studies major, he couldn’t imagine the straight-faced man would agree to suffer through terrible movies willingly. Unless, of course, he was wrapped around Bokuto and Kuroo’s little fingers.

“Mean! Just because I put in the extra effort that keeps people coming back here, doesn’t mean I should be made fun of for it.” Oikawa huffed, grabbing the disinfecting spray and the towel Kuroo had been using to dry the dishes. “Go on, then – I’ll even study here for a while to leave the apartment for you all to do whatever it is you want for a couple hours.”

“You sure? It’s not like me or Kou want to kick you out.” Kuroo’s concern was heartwarming – Oikawa knew what he was agreeing to when he decided to share an apartment with Kuroo and one of his boyfriends, and he knew for a fact that both of them were far too squishy inside to even think of ousting him on purpose.

With that in mind, Oikawa had no issues vacating the space willingly. Headphones could only do so much sometimes, though he knew the others often tried to consciously keep the noise level low. “It’s fine,” he reassured Kuroo, dragging out his words to emphasize his point. “Now shoo, don’t get buried in the snow on your way back.”

Kuroo looked out the glass of the front door at that and frowned. “You’re right, it did start snowing.” He looked back to where Suga was sleeping on the sofa, blissfully unaware. “Daichi’s apartment is a farther walk from here than ours. Is he going to be okay getting back?”

“You worry too much, Tetsu-chan.” Oikawa took his phone in hand, checking the hour-by-hour weather. “It says here it’ll stop in a couple hours, just in time for me and Suga-chan to head back.”

Kuroo relaxed at that, flashing a crooked smirk over his shoulder as he opened the front door and exposed the warmth of the café to the chilling outside air. “Good to know. I’ll see you later, then.”

“Later, Tetsu-chan,” Oikawa singsonged, waving at him until the bell on the door jingled with its closing.

He pocketed his phone before continuing to wipe down all the tables, minus the one still covered in all of Suga’s studying materials. He traded the disinfecting spray bottle for one filled with water instead, making his rounds of all the tables again to water the small potted plants on each. They were part of the reason for the name of the café – Ukai’s partner Takeda ran a flower shop in another neighborhood of Tokyo and loved to keep the café stocked with potted plants of all kinds.

Ukai had recently been considering aerial plants in hanging baskets on Takeda’s suggestion, but Oikawa and Kuroo were among the employees who were wary of the addition, citing their considerable height and likeliness to knock them down while moving around the café. At that, Ukai had relented but was also sure that Takeda would find a way to “swamp us all with whatever plants he can get away with” once he passed it along.

His end-shift chores completed, Oikawa stowed away his own bright teal apron in exchange for his textbook and glasses. After his classes and four-hour shift, his contacts were starting to dry out, so he delicately pinched them away from his eyes and threw them in the garbage can before preparing himself a cup of hot tea with liberal amounts of sugar. Oikawa smiled to himself as he spooned the sugar into the mug, recalling Kuroo’s reaction to Oikawa’s non-alcoholic drink of choice, calling it “sugar with a side of gutter water.”

Not that Kuroo had much ground to stand on in Oikawa’s opinion, since the overgrown alley cat preferred “burned bean juice as black as that mess you call hair, Tetsu-chan.” In other words, absolutely vile as far as Oikawa’s tastes were concerned – though he had to concede that the smell was not nearly as off-putting. Even the taste could be fixed with enough milk and sugar, but Kuroo always staunchly refused to prepare any for him after realizing Oikawa preferred “milk with coffee” instead of “coffee with milk.”  

Settling into the armchair next to the still-slumbering Suga, Oikawa managed to make his way through two chapters of reading for one of his physics classes and another mug of tea, nursing his third by the time the wreathed clock noted the time as two thirty in the morning. He snapped his textbook closed and rubbed at his eyes, slipping his glasses off and placing them on top of his textbook, watching the slowly dying flames of the fire flicker in the lens of his glasses. He felt his energy reflected in the flames, only vaguely aware that he could easily nod off here and now – only to be yelled at in the morning when Ukai came in early to take stock of the previous day’s work.

The thought roused him, convincing him to throw off the blanket that had been resting on the back of the armchair before he started studying there – all of the chairs in the café were similarly equipped, as a bonus for café goers that decided to stick around during the winter months. He checked his phone for messages after abandoning it to the furthest reaches of the cracks in between the armchair’s cushions for the past couple hours.

He let out a sharp peal of laughter at the string of messages from Kuroo that he’d received more than an hour ago.

Tetsu-chan (12:30): have to say

Tetsu-chan (12:30): if i were any older

Tetsu-chan (12:30): i probably wouldve died

Tetsu-chan (12:31): from a broken neck

Tetsu-chan (12:31): kou did one of his flying tackle hugs when I got back

Tetsu-chan (12:32): and the hallway was iced over

Tetsu-chan (12:33): keijis still so mad at him

Tetsu-chan (12:33): neither of them know i already forgave him

Tetsu-chan (12:34): i wanna see how long i can milk this for

There were also a couple more recent messages that made Oikawa sigh fondly in exasperation.

Tetsu-chan (01:47): the snow stopped, you should prob head back

Tetsu-chan (01:48): im pretty wiped so hopefully ill be asleep by the time you get back

Tetsu-chan (01:49): dont stick around there too long studying, you know ukai will flip his shit in the morning if youre there again

He paused in the middle of typing a reply, looking up when he heard movement from the sofa. Suga slowly uncurled himself from his corner of the sofa, blinking blearily in the dimmed light provided by one of the floor lamps Oikawa had moved in order to better read his textbook by. The slender man yawned widely and stretched, wiping away the wetness at the corners of his eyes caused by the motions before spotting Oikawa, who was studying him from over the top of his knees that were bent in front of him from where he’d nestled into the armchair.

“Well, good morning, Suga-chan,” Oikawa sang, a playful lilt in his voice. “Nice of you to join the world of the living at the fine hour of,” a pause to check the time on his phone for show, “a quarter to three.”

The mention of the late hour seemed to shock Suga, who scrambled for his own phone to check the time. “Is it really that late?! I’m so sorry, you must have been waiting such a long time, um…” Suga tilted his head questioningly, his frantic apology giving way to curiosity. “I’m sorry, I don’t think we’ve met before. How do you know my name?”

“Oikawa Tooru, the pleasure is mine,” he introduced himself with a wink and peace sign combination. “My roommate Tetsu-chan seemed to know you through Daicchi – it came up a few hours ago when I first saw you asleep.”

“Oh, Kuroo? I think I knew he was living with someone other than Bokuto, but your name never came up.” He rocked forward to brace himself on the arm of the sofa closer to Oikawa, offering his hand. “I’m Sugawara Koushi, but feel free to call me – well, Suga-chan, I suppose.” He laughed at that, flashing even, white teeth in an endearing smile. The crinkle of his eyes drew Oikawa’s attention to the beauty mark near the corner of his left eye for a moment, the dark spot prominent against the smooth paleness of Suga’s face.

Oikawa gasped, feeling immediate superficial offense – the kind that hurt no one and entertained all, the kind he specialized in. “You mean Tetsu-chan never bothered to bring up how he was living with the likes of me, who had to stoop down to his and Boku-chan’s level just to bring them up to where they are now? I am going to have _words_ with him when I get back!” He took Suga’s hand and clasped it firmly, noting the chill in the other man’s fingers. “But it’s nice to meet you anyway, of course. Speaking of, Tetsu-chan said you and Daicchi live close enough to walk back? If it were up to me, I’d let you sleep here until morning, but Ukai-san already yells at me for doing that, and I _work_ here.”

Suga laughed at the pout on Oikawa’s face before his face settled into a dimmer, more contemplative frown, however slight it was. “Yeah, it’s less than ten minutes away, luckily.” Suga sighed, punctuating his change in mood as he turned to look out the window. “I wasn’t expecting it to snow though. Tokyo tends to wait until mid-winter before it starts snowing.” He gestures to his clothing, a relatively lightweight grey sweater and black jeans with black boots. He gathered up a simple red scarf from where he’d been curled up as he continued, “I’ll just have to freeze on the way back.”

“Not a fan of the cold?” Oikawa mused as he gathered up his mug and textbooks, stopping by the sink to drop the former without washing it – something he knew would drive Ukai up the wall, but only just enough to emphasize how well he did the rest of his job. He continued to the back room, picking up his own beige coat and white scarf from the coat rack.

Suga followed Oikawa’s example, straightening out his papers and books before stuffing them into his messenger bag. “No, I love winter and everything that goes along with it, including snow – just, more so when I’m actually dressed for the occasion.”

“How about this then?” Oikawa held his coat out to Suga by the hood, letting it dangle in between them. “I don’t mind letting you borrow it, your hands were freezing and I can’t imagine the rest of you is doing much better, to be honest.”

Suga’s brow furrowed in confusion, even as he seemed to reflexively hold out his arms for Oikawa to drop his coat into them. “I have low blood pressure, is all – and I can’t just take your coat, what would you do without it?”

Oikawa plucked at the high collar of his sky blue turtleneck sweater from where it peeked out under his scarf. “I’ll be just fine, I run warm and according to Tetsu-chan, I live closer to here.” He hiked the strap of his messenger bag higher up on his shoulder while gesturing for Suga to put on the coat. “Come on, Suga-chan, I’m sure we’d both like to sleep in our own beds by the time the sun rises.”

Suga eyed him, sighing as he reluctantly complied. “You must be a handful to live with. I feel for Kuroo and Bokuto.”

“Rude! You just met me! You should be pitying me for having to put up with their ridiculous schemes – also Akacchi, since he gets dragged along with them just for dating them both.”

The shorter man – now that he was standing up, Oikawa could look down on the fluffy silver hair gracing Suga’s head – laughed at that, fiddling with the toggles on Oikawa’s coat after slinging his bag over his shoulder. The sleeves fell well past Suga’s wrists, highlighting their height difference in what Oikawa thought was a decidedly endearing way.  “Akaashi, was it? I’ve only met him once before, but I can only imagine what it’s like to date both Kuroo and Bokuto at the same time. He must really have his hands full.”

“And he doesn’t even live with them – yet, anyway.” Oikawa sighed exaggeratedly. “I’ll probably have to give up my spot in the apartment to him eventually. But until then, I’ll head back and manage the dumb duo myself until their handler shows up.” After going around and ensuring that all the lights were off in the café, Oikawa ushered Suga out the front door, locking the door after both of them and giving the handle a solid shake to make sure it was closed tight.

Suga’s hands clenched around the strap of his messenger bag, his grip turning his knuckles white – whether it was the cold or some other factor, Oikawa couldn’t tell. “I really am sorry for making you wait up so late – I noticed the café’s supposed to close at midnight. You really should’ve just woken me up so you could go home.”  

“No worries, Suga-chan,” Oikawa said lightheartedly, patting Suga on the shoulder to try and alleviate some of his worry. “I got some of my own studying done and I work better at night anyway. Just make sure you come back soon to give me back my coat – from the looks of it, I’ll be needing it sooner rather than later, yeah?” He waved his index finger in the air, motioning towards the stars that managed to shine through the patchy clouds and light pollution from the city.

He nodded, a small smile lifting the corners of his lips towards the flush high on his cheeks from the cold. “Yeah, I’ll be sure to drop by. I didn’t even get anything to drink before I fell asleep, so I feel bad for taking up space without even paying.”

Oikawa laughed, the sound appearing as a cloud of vapor in the cold air between them before it vanished into the black night, sparsely illuminated by the streetlights on the sidewalk. The lights accentuated the silver of Suga’s hair, giving it an ethereal glow reminiscent of moonlight. “Next time, I’ll make coffee for two, okay? Or better yet, you can convince Tetsu-chan to make it for us, because he hates the way I drink it.”

“How’s that?” The smile grew larger on Suga’s face.

“With way too much milk and sugar.” Oikawa winked conspiratorially, turning away before snapping his fingers, the sting of the action lingering in his fingertips due to the cold. “Before I forget! Give me your number?” He turned back to Suga, an expectant smile on his face.

Suga blinked before reaching into his borrowed coat’s pocket to pull out his phone, his thumb tracing the screen to unlock it before he handed it to Oikawa. “Are you always this pushy?”

“Rude!”

“And easily offended?” Suga tacked on the second question while laughing, accepting his phone back and examining the contact for “☆Oikawa☆” with a now-bemused smile. He typed out a quick message to Oikawa, sending it and hearing the resulting vibration from Oikawa’s own phone.

Oikawa huffed, opening the message to see a simple “hi” and pointed at Suga accusingly. “You better watch yourself, Suga-chan! I have your number now, you’ll never hear the end of it from me.”

“I’m sure.” Did Oikawa imagine that eye roll? Suga rubbed his hands together, breathing into them before tucking them under his arms. “It’s still pretty cold out, so I’m going to head back now. Thanks for the coat, again. I’ll see you soon, Oikawa-san.”  

“Night, Suga-chan! Have a safe walk home!”

Oikawa made it back to his apartment in one piece, slipping into bed with stars dancing in the pale moonlight behind his eyelids as he fell into sweet dreams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some thoughts:
> 
> \- I forgot that stories need summaries and I wasn't particularly inspired while writing the one that's on it now, so it may change later on.  
> \- It's been a long time since I've last written a story, and I've never written for HQ before, so forgive me while I'm settling into writing the characters ;w;  
> \- Kuroo ran away with his dialogue in this introduction - I didn't mean for him to talk so much...  
> \- The tone is all over the place in this chapter, and it's supposed to be from Oikawa's point of view, but I'm not sure if that really came through...  
> \- I can't promise any kind of regularity with this story, but I do hope that people like it enough to let me know if they do - comments are the lifeblood of an author, and it makes me all that much more motivated to write more!
> 
> Thank you so much for reading!! I'd love to hear any feedback, questions, and/or chat! c:


	2. sunny smiles

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Another evening at the café.

“Oh, you’re doing this shift today, Yakkun?” Oikawa took stock of his shift mate as he lifted the hinged counter to let himself into the work space, ruffling the shorter man’s hair and waving jauntily at some familiar café patrons as he went past. “Normally you babysit Yacchan and make sure she doesn’t get bullied by Tsukki, right? What’re you doing on this shift?”

“I asked Ukai-san to let me switch so I wouldn’t have a shift right before one of my exams. He said it’s fine as long as I’m okay with taking responsibility for Yachi’s inevitable heart attack from Tsukishima’s attitude. Babysitting you wasn’t at the top of my priorities either, let me tell you.” Yaku sighed heavily, leafing through a thick stack of papers with a red pen in hand, making harsh slash marks regularly as he scanned the writing on them.

In the back room, Oikawa threw off his messenger bag as gently as he could while still relieving himself of the weight of his books and laptop. He rolled his shoulders with a sigh as he returned to stand next to Yaku, his apron already hanging over his neck.

“Yakkun, you’re younger than I am.”

“Could’ve fooled me.”

“Mean!” Oikawa peered over Yaku’s head while tying a bow deftly behind his back to secure his apron. “Grading something?”

“Yeah, quizzes for an introductory biology class.” Yaku scratched the side of his head with the back of his pen while staring at one particular paper, eyebrows furrowed. He drew one big circle around the work and punctuated his confusion with a question mark drawn on the paper before flipping to the next one. “I don’t remember being this dumb when I was a first-year.”

“But that’s why you’re just a grader and not a teaching assistant – it’s not up to you whether or not they do well. You just tell them what they did wrong and they have to figure out how to fix it on their own,” Oikawa said airily, straightening up to go wash his hands at the sink. “How’s Yuu-chan doing?”

“Working hard at the police academy.” Oikawa could hear how Yaku’s expression softened at the mention of his younger boyfriend. “I still can’t believe how hard it was to convince him to stay enrolled when he found he couldn’t wear a black uniform.”

“Can he even keep his hair the way he normally does if he has to stick to the uniform?” Oikawa wondered aloud.

“He said hats are part of the uniform, so no one will ever know if he just keeps it on all the time.” Yaku’s eyebrows drew together again, but Oikawa was fairly certain that it wasn’t only because of the papers he was grading. “I still think it’ll just get flattened by the hat, but…”

“Have some faith in the strength of your boyfriend’s hairstyle, Yakkun.” Oikawa patted him on the back. “Besides, even if it does, you’ll finally look taller than him, like you’re supposed to be!”

Yaku was winding up to kick Oikawa in the back of the knees as he was wont to do when he and Oikawa were working the same shift when the bell on the front door jingled merrily. Oikawa lunged over to the relative safety of the register before Yaku could unleash his trademark attack, plastering a charming smile on his face before starting to offer a smooth greeting to what he expected to be a group of giggling girls.

Instead, he was met with Suga’s laughing face, his smile mirroring the warmth emanating from the fireplace. “Hey, Yaku! Keeping Oikawa in line here?”

“As best I can.” Yaku settled for kicking Oikawa in the calf, a dull blow with less impact than what Oikawa had been bracing himself for. That didn’t mean it didn’t hurt, though, as Oikawa still had to bend down to rub at the point of impact to chase the pain away.

“Hey, what happened to ‘Oikawa-san’?” Oikawa pouted, coming back up to lean his elbows on the counter. “You were so nice and polite just a few days ago.” He tilted his head where it rested on his hands, noticing that Suga was once again wearing Oikawa’s coat as the other man brushed snow off of his shoulders.

At this vantage point, Oikawa’s face was level with Suga’s, and he could see exactly when the merriment from seeing a familiar face morphed into fond exasperation. “Oikawa,” Suga intoned purposefully, “if I had a hundred yen for every time you’ve proven yourself to be an absolute child, I could buy coffee from here every day for the rest of the term.” Suga glanced up at the chalkboard menu hanging above the register before looking back to Oikawa and pressing a few coins into his hand. “Speaking of, can I get something sweet that still has caffeine? Anything like that is fine.”

“Nice kill, Suga!” Yaku reached over to high-five Suga before completely giving in to the laughter inspired by how Oikawa’s jaw had dropped in an astonished gasp. “Oi, pick that up before I sweep it into the trash,” he managed to get out while making an effort to steady his giggles.

At that, Oikawa had to wonder if Yaku was referring to his dignity or his jaw, snapping his mouth shut before opening it again immediately to exclaim, "The audacity! Just because I'm younger by a month - I could just fill your cup with that swill Tetsu-chan insists on calling coffee and you still want to be so informal when just the other day you had no problem calling me 'Oikawa-san' like a civilized human being? At least Boku-chan's known me for longer than he's been dating Tetsu-chan - which is also thanks to me, I'll have you know, and - are you even listening, Suga-chan?"

The indignation in Oikawa's voice rose steadily throughout his tirade as he went through the motions of fixing Suga a concoction of his own making. He would have continued if he hadn’t glanced back over his shoulder to see Suga staring at his phone, bottom lip white from where it was tugged in between his teeth.

Suga’s eyes flicked up to meet Oikawa’s at the brief pause, after which he stashed his phone away in the pocket of his borrowed coat. "Honestly, you lost me after you said you’d poison me or something - which I'd like to see you try, really!" Suga seemed to lose it at Oikawa throwing up his arms at that, laughing loudly at all his looking like a ridiculously tall child ready to stomp his foot. Which he did do, but it was the most mature foot-stomping anyone had ever seen, Oikawa could assure anyone who asked. “You _are_ younger than I am, but that’s not what I was talking about. You’re just proving my point that even if you weren’t, no one would be able to tell.”

Oikawa huffed – something he seemed to do a lot in the company of his friends – before setting down a mug on a saucer with a flourish in front of Suga, whipped cream slowly melting into the steaming hot drink beneath. “I’m perfectly mature – look at me, doing my job for someone that insists on distracting me from it.”

“You sure you’re not doing that to yourself?” Yaku piped up from where he’d taken up his pen against the stack of papers again, not taking his eyes off the corrections he was making.

Oikawa shushed Yaku and gestured for Suga to try the drink, focusing on Suga’s face as he brought the mug up to his nose to smell it before taking a cautious sip of it. Oikawa watched Suga blink at the taste before he took a longer second sip, smiling as he set it back down on the saucer.

“It’s good!”

“Of course it is.” Oikawa scoffed, crossing his arms in an attempt to hide his delight at the sincere praise. “It’s my own secret recipe for a mint chocolate caffè mocha with all the caffeine a sleep-deprived student needs at odd hours of the day.”

He reached out and deftly swiped away the whipped cream that had landed on the tip of Suga’s nose, absentmindedly licking it off his thumb before deciding it could have aerated better. He turned away to check the nozzle of the cream canister, popping it off the can and clicking his tongue when he found it clogged with solidified cream.

“Yakkun, who used the whipped cream last?” He tossed the question over his shoulder, moving to the sink with the nozzle in hand. Really, was it so hard to rinse it right after using it? Oikawa was tempted to write as much on the canister itself with a permanent marker, and would have done so if he didn’t already know that Ukai would definitely not appreciate it.

“I don’t – hey, Suga, are you doing okay? You look like you’re overheating.”

The concern in Yaku’s question in lieu of an answer to Oikawa’s own query made Oikawa look up from his ruminations to see a flush high on Suga’s cheeks behind the mug he was holding in front of his face. Oikawa thought the pink tinge was a nice contrast to the honeyed brown of his eyes, which were steadfastly avoiding meeting his gaze.

“Oh, y-yeah, I’m fine! It is kind of warm in here, though.” Suga shook his head as if to clear it, smiling shyly. He downed the rest of the drink quickly, heedless of the temperature, before placing the mug back on the saucer and pushing both back towards Oikawa, all without making eye contact. “Do you mind getting me a refill of the same? I’m going to set myself up to study.” He moved away from the counter before Oikawa could reply with more than a quick affirmative, making his way over to the armchair by the fireplace while shedding his messenger bag and Oikawa’s coat.

Yaku leveled a questioning look at Oikawa after watching Suga sink into his seat of choice. “You didn’t really poison him, did you?”

“Of course not!” Oikawa spluttered. “I didn’t do anything to him!”

 Yaku’s eyes narrowed, unconvinced by Oikawa’s candid confusion. He appeared to come to a realization when he pointed his pen at Oikawa threateningly. “I don’t know exactly what you did, but you better fix it – I’m the one who told Suga to start coming here and I don’t want you to ruin it for him.”

Yaku’s statement mystified Oikawa slightly, but he couldn’t ask for clarification as a group of three giggling girls he’d been expecting to appear earlier came up to the register, batting their eyelashes at Oikawa and greeting him by name. He put on his trademark service smile, returning their greetings before excusing himself with Suga’s mug and saucer to let Yaku take their orders while he simultaneously worked on Suga’s refill and gathered the cups necessary for all of the new drinks.

Yaku helped prepare the drinks after he finished taking the orders, and soon enough, Oikawa was balancing a tray full of drinks ready to deliver as he made his way over to where Suga was scratching away at his notebook, flipping between the page he was writing on and the textbook underneath with a frown on his face.

“Sorry for the wait,” Oikawa announced with an apologetic smile, placing the refilled mug and its saucer on the table carefully. Suga seemed to have recovered from whatever had struck him earlier, meeting Oikawa’s eyes easily and thanking him shortly but sincerely before returning to his work.

Oikawa brought the tray over to the table where the three girls were sitting, eagerly awaiting his arrival. He turned up the radiance of his service smile a notch, knowing the effect it would have on them and finding a smug satisfaction in their excited tittering. He set the tray with their drinks on the table before bowing and excusing himself, leaving their sighs and whispers in his wake as he returned to where Yaku was watching him with something akin to disdain from behind the counter.

“I almost forgot that whenever it’s your shift, this place turns into a host club.” He straightened out the papers he’d been grading as he spoke, clipping them together and capping his pen. He tucked the latter into the pocket of his pumpkin orange apron – a gift from Nishinoya that had made Yaku hide his face from the coos of his coworkers when he’d been presented with it.

“It’s called customer service, Yakkun. You ought to try it.”

“Whatever it is, I’ll just leave you to it.” Yaku rolled his eyes, tapping his finger on his crossed arms as he looked over to where Suga was still hard at work. “If you want to take a break for now, I think Suga could use some company. Doesn’t look like it’ll be busy for a bit.”

“Well, if you insist,” Oikawa lilted, walking to the back room and snagging a piece of homemade milk bread from his bag. He tossed it in the toaster and waited for it to heat up while Yaku moved around him to stow away his papers.

“Oikawa-san!”

Oikawa turned around to see one of the three girls from earlier standing by the register, the tray now carrying three dirtied mugs. Her two friends stood by the table they’d been sitting at, watching their interaction with bright eyes. He brought his mouth up into a charming smile as he took the tray from her, noticing her shaking hands as he did.

“Thank you, Airi-chan – you and your friends picked up everything so well, I’ll be out of a job!” Oikawa recalled the name from when Yaku had been taking the orders and was fairly sure the same girl had been the one at the head of the group.

“I-It wasn’t a problem at all!” She twisted the hem of her sweater nervously in her hands, glancing up at Oikawa with a prominent blush on her face. “Um, if it’s not a hassle or anything, c-could I maybe – get your phone number?”

The toaster with Oikawa’s milk bread in it dinged and resonated loudly in the silence between them following her question, much like his recognition of what the essence of her request really was. He sighed quietly, readying his well-practiced response. “I wish I could, Airi-chan, but we’re not allowed to give out personal numbers to customers while we’re working – Ukai-san would get really angry with us if he found out, you know?” He adjusted the tone of his voice to be soothing yet firm, a rejection that hopefully wouldn’t cause any tears or angry yelling.

She seemed to realize what the underlying message was and took a step back, shaking her head with a wobbly smile. “O-Oh, I understand! Sorry for troubling you, Oikawa-san! See you next time!” She turned sharply on her heel and walked straight out the door, leaving her friends to hurriedly chase after her while shooting glares at him over their shoulders as they left.

“Customer service, huh?” Yaku dragged out the question mockingly, an eyebrow raised at the spectacle as he leaned in the doorway leading to the back room. “If you’re going to flirt with the customers, at least flirt with all of them. Why do you think Ukai hired you in the first place?”

"Yakkun, whatever do you mean?" Oikawa laid a hand over his heart in mock injury. "I share my affections equally with all who ask for - ack!!"

A well-aimed kick to the back of Oikawa's knees sent him crumpling face first into the counter. He managed to catch himself, using his arms to cushion his face before springing up to glare accusingly at Yaku, who looked for all the world like he’d done absolutely nothing.

“I’ve been waiting to do that since you got here, to be honest.” Yaku’s words belied his nonchalance, a satisfied smirk settling on his lips. “Go take your break and recuperate – I’m sure you need it now that you’ve broken yet another heart on the job.”

Oikawa stuck his tongue out at Yaku as he reclaimed his milk bread from the toaster and walked over to where Suga was stretching his arms out above his head. Oikawa sighed gustily as he leaned on the arm of the chair Suga was sitting in, biting into his milk bread half-heartedly.

“I take it that happens often?” Suga inquired, reaching up and patting Oikawa’s back comfortingly.

“Often enough. Tetsu-chan’s been wanting to set up a jar for me to put money into whenever it happens. Something about ‘damage control’ or something that the others would split at the end of the month.”

The hand on Oikawa’s back stilled in its motions. “Maybe if you didn’t lead them on so much, it wouldn’t happen as often.”

Suga’s blunt statement already seemed in-character to Oikawa, even from the few in-person and text-based interactions they’d had so far – it was well-meaning and straightforward and, as a result, hit with the force of a train. “If I’m just mean to them, no one would be happy – especially Ukai-san,” Oikawa said morosely. “Besides, I’d lead them on more if I actually took their numbers, so I always turn them down.”

“To me, it just seems like you’re used to flirting with everyone, but they can’t tell and it makes them feel special. Did you ever consider that making them feel special is what’s hurting them in the first place?”

The weight of the question settled around them, a pall on Oikawa’s already dampened mood. The crackling of the fireplace, normally so cheery in the ambient noise it provided, now sounded ominous, amplified between them. Oikawa wasn’t sure how to handle it – he really only had just met Suga, after all, and this predicament was a product of it.

“You sound pretty familiar with this, Suga-chan. Have you been on that end of it before?” Oikawa knew he wasn’t asking a particularly fair question, but he was scrambling to collect himself and it seemed to just fall out of his mouth before he could catch it.

Maybe something about the way he said it or the way he looked while grasping at the straws of their conversation clicked with Suga, but whatever it was, Suga seemed to come back into himself. The harsh line of his shoulders relaxed and curved down as he laughed, trying to catch the sound in his hand.

“Oh no, I have a sense of self-preservation. I mean, look at what happened to that poor girl.” He made a grand, sweeping gesture at Oikawa with his hand as he spoke. “Evidently you’re a disaster waiting to happen, and I wouldn’t put myself in the path of that quite _that_ willingly.”

Oikawa spluttered, hands flailing before he remembered that he was still holding his milk bread. “What are you talking about, Suga-chan? I’m a delight!” Oikawa tried to read into the implications of Suga’s last statement, but before he could make much headway, a stern voice sounded from behind him.

“Hey, your break’s gone on way too long! Get back here!”

“Calm down, Yakkun, it’s not like I’m running away!” Oikawa waved him off, secretly thankful for Yaku’s well-timed interruption. He did, however, rush to finish off his milk bread, speaking between swallows. “What were you working on anyway? Homework?”

Suga sank further into his seat, groaning in affirmation. “It’s a physics class I managed to put off until now because I’m just not good at it. I should have at least audited it instead of dropping it the first time, but I had a lot of other things to deal with at the time, so now it’s come back to bite me.” The frustration was evident in his voice, prompting Oikawa to lean over and look at the textbook and notebook in Suga’s lap while licking the remnants of his bread off his fingers thoughtfully. “It’s required for all science majors, but I just can’t get a handle on it.”

Oikawa tapped the page of neat handwriting in Suga’s notebook after wiping his fingers dry on a spare napkin he found in his apron pocket. “Well, I _am_ an astrophysics major, and I _do_ remember taking this class in my first year. If you need help, I’m sure I’m qualified enough to tutor you.” 

“Oh, are you, now?” Suga joked, laughing at Oikawa’s pout. “I’m kidding, I’m kidding. I really would appreciate it, though – this is the last assignment before the next exam, so I’d need the help sooner rather than later.”

“I’ll have you know I’m in very high demand, but I’m sure I can find space for you somewhere in my busy schedule.” Oikawa shrugged, grinning easily while checking his phone. “Are you free this Saturday?”

“For someone who claims to be so busy, you offered up your precious weekend pretty quickly, there.” Suga rolled his eyes, returning the grin. “Honestly, the only plans I had were to try and study for this exam, so I’m free that day, yes.”

Oikawa hummed in consideration. “I’m making dinner for the apartment, so I have to go grocery shopping. If you want to join me, we can study and you can have dinner with all of us afterwards.”

“Sounds like fun. Do you always make dinner for the three of you?”

“More like the four of us, since Akacchi always comes to visit.” Oikawa sighed, no real exasperation behind it. “At least he’s a man of taste in one way, if not in men – he always comes by when it’s my turn, since we trade off every week.”

Suga raised an eyebrow. “So you really can cook?”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Oikawa huffed. “If anything, you’re lucky it’s not Tetsu-chan’s turn. For someone majoring in chemistry, you’d think he’d be better at cooking, but he’s set off the fire alarm more times than Boku-chan and I can count! I think our landlord knows we took the batteries out of the smoke detector after the fifth time, but doesn’t care enough to tell us to put them back.”

Suga coughed, choking on his laughter. “Sounds like Kuroo needs that ‘damage control’ jar more than you do. Why don’t you just cook all the time, then? It sounds like it’s better not to risk giving Kuroo his turn, right?”

“Tetsu-chan is a delicate flower and Boku-chan insists it’d hurt his feelings if we just didn’t let him cook.” Oikawa shrugged. “We normally eat around eight, so do you want to come over at four or so?”

“Sounds like a date.”

The sunny smile Suga sent his way was dazzling, and Oikawa felt the warmth of it grace his face – or was that a blush? Before Oikawa could ponder it any further, he felt himself getting pulled down to approximately Yaku’s height by the force of a hand on his ear.

“Like I _said_ , if you’re going to flirt with the customers, at least flirt with all of them! Break’s over!” Yaku started walking away, dragging Oikawa behind him by the ear with no heed to how hard it was for him not to trip. “Sorry he’s such a bother, Suga. Feel free to get some more coffee – my treat.”

“He already didn’t have to pay for the refill I gave him – if anything, it’s _my_ treat! Yakkun, that _hurts_ , watch the earring! Suga-chan, _help_!” Oikawa’s pitiful whines drew laughter from all the patrons, but the tinkling splendor of Suga’s giggles rose above the rest.

In that moment, with Suga also wiggling his fingers in a goodbye as Oikawa was dragged away, Oikawa decided it was a sound he wouldn’t mind hearing more often – even if it meant not getting his coat back for a while, draped across Suga’s lap as it was.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some thoughts:
> 
> \- This chapter demanded to be completely rewritten twice, so I apologize for having strong-armed it into the mess it looks like to me ;w;  
> \- Enter Yaku! Because Oikawa really does need a babysitter, don't lie.  
> \- There is so. much. dialogue in this chapter, and it really slows everything down when I just want things to happen? Curse my verbosity.  
> \- I think this is where I add "slow burn" to the tags because I really do want their relationship to build up slowly? (but also my own writing is obviously making this run slower than I expected orz )  
> \- Yes, Oikawa has earrings. I wanted him to be able to wear them, so there it is! c: ~~(is there a story behind them? probably, but let me think up what it is first orz )~~
> 
> Please let me know what you think! I treasure all comments and I'd love to chat and/or answer questions c:


	3. falling snow

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Food brings everyone closer.

Saturday morning found Oikawa stirring awake to the sound of thumps, occasional crashes, and bitten-back curses. Oikawa tried to stave off the muffled cacophony with a pillow over his head, but he eventually gave up and grabbed his phone off the nightstand by blindly groping for it from underneath his blankets. He pulled it into his cocoon of warmth before finally cracking open his eyes to squint at the screen and check the time, finding it to be just past ten in the morning – way too early to be awake on a weekend.

He stumbled his way out of bed and prepared to glare at the source of the ruckus as he reached the kitchen of their apartment. As it happened, there were, in fact, two sources – Bokuto and Kuroo, who had somehow managed to splatter what seemed to be pancake batter over every visible surface, even reaching the living room area, since their kitchen was open to it.

The bickering duo froze in their hushed argument and turned simultaneously to look sheepishly at Oikawa, who stared back at them, arms crossed with an unimpressed set to his features.

Bokuto’s voice rose to a suspiciously loud level as he cried out, “It’s before noon on a Saturday – who are you and what have you done to Oikawa? Oh god, you’re an alien, aren’t you?! I should have believed Oikawa while he was still here!” He broke down into fake sobs, burying his face in his batter-caked hands without flinching, which Oikawa had to give him credit for.

Kuroo patted his boyfriend’s back comfortingly. “Now, now, it’s nothing that drastic. I’m sure the sun and moon just aligned for a moment and gave us this miracle that is Oikawa awake at a reasonable morning hour.”

“Oh, shut it, Tetsu-chan, any two points make a line.” Oikawa rolled his eyes, head turning every which way as he took in the extent of the mess while nearing the kitchen and dining area. “Did you really expect anyone to sleep through this? I banned you both from using the electric mixer because I _didn’t_ want this kind of thing to happen again, so what happened this time?”

“Oya? I guess it’s really you after all.” Kuroo had the gall to look disappointed while he said it, making Oikawa’s eye twitch. “Well, Kou had the _great_ idea to make pancakes for breakfast –”

“Hey, you agreed that it was a good idea!” Bokuto whined, cutting into Kuroo’s explanation.

“And it was, until you also thought it would be a good idea to mix the batter by _throwing the bowl into the air and spinning it_ –”

“But that’s how you make pizza!”

Kuroo took hold of Bokuto’s shoulders and forced the man to face him squarely. “Kou, I love you, but honestly, have you ever seen anyone toss a pizza _after_ putting the toppings on it?”

Oikawa could practically hear the gears working in Bokuto’s head, sighing heavily before he even heard Bokuto’s sullen “No…” trailing off into silence.

“I wish I could say I’m surprised, but I’ve known and lived with both of you long enough that I’d be in the wrong if I were.” Oikawa sighed again. “I’m already cooking dinner tonight for the four of you, but if there’s any batter left, I’ll make the pancakes for you – _if_ you clean up this massive mess you made.” Oikawa’s tone grew stern at Kuroo and Bokuto trading grins and high-fives.

“Wait, who else is coming besides Keiji?” Bokuto looked about two seconds away from counting off on his fingers who was coming to dinner. Oikawa was tempted to let him, but intervened soon enough anyway out of the goodness of his heart.

“Suga-chan’s coming over in the afternoon to study and he’s staying for dinner, so I’d rather not have him believe we normally live like this.” Oikawa waved a hand at the apartment as a whole before pushing past the two in the doorway of the kitchen, careful not to step in the batter spotting the floor.

“Oya?”

Oikawa paused in rolling up the sleeves of his long-sleeved t-shirt, looking back at the two taller men after hearing their trademark call to mischief. They raised an eyebrow at each other before turning their shared expressions on Oikawa, and – even though he wouldn’t _ever_ admit it to their faces if he ever wanted a chance of making it out of their apartment before their egos exploded – it was a fairly intimidating move.

“Who’s this Suga-chan you’re talking about?” Bokuto grinned, a lopsided thing that Oikawa was fairly sure he’d picked up from Kuroo over their years together.

“Didn’t you just meet like, a week ago?” A sly smirk stole its way across Kuroo’s face, reminiscent of a cat baring its teeth.

“And you’re bringing him home already? Moving pretty fast, aren’t you?” Bokuto’s owl-like eyes fixed on Oikawa while his head tilted in a questioning way, taunting in its angle while he maintained his grin.

“You’re animals, the both of you.” Oikawa huffed, grabbing the dish towels that had escaped most of the batter splatter and throwing them at their faces. “Clean up or I’m eating all the pancakes myself!”

“Hey, Tetsu – bet I can get more batter than you!” Bokuto issued his challenge with a smile that mirrored the energy he started cleaning with, making sweeping arcs with his arms as he wiped down the cabinets.

“Oh, you’re on!” Kuroo crowed, proceeding to knock Bokuto off-balance and stealing the last globs of batter off the doors with his own towel.

Oikawa had to admit that it was entertaining to watch the two squabble – more so since they were actually cleaning up the apartment pretty well through their impromptu competition. After a near double knockout from Bokuto trying to jump and swipe batter off the ceiling with Kuroo nearby, Oikawa begrudgingly called it off for them and served up the pancakes he’d made with the remaining batter. The three of them sat down at the dining table, half the spaces empty since they’d opted to invest in a larger dining table for when people came to visit.

“Hey, since you’re up so early, do you want to go on a run with me and Tetsu?” Bokuto asked Oikawa through mouthfuls of honeyed pancake, jabbing a thumb towards the window letting in crisp winter sunlight. “Kuroo and I need to shower because of all this, but I figure we might as well wash off the batter and the sweat all at once.”

Oikawa crinkled his nose. “And hopefully not together – you do remember what happened the last time you two tried to shower together, right?”

He directed the question towards Kuroo, who laid a hand over his heart, ignoring or not noticing how his fork smeared honey and pancake crumbs on the front of his shirt. “The stitches may be gone from my head, but I still have the memory here. Kou was such a hero, even though it was right after he pushed me down like a beast –”

“It’s because you’re so skinny even though you’re taller than me!” Bokuto rushed to defend himself, pointing his own fork at Kuroo accusingly. “It’s so easy to pick you up but then it was slippery because of the water and –”

“Okay, that’s enough of that.” Oikawa cut them off before he had to relive the trauma – blunt-force, in Kuroo’s case – of that day again. “My point is, no more shower sex. But since you did wake me up at such an ungodly hour, I might as well do something with the extra time.”

Bokuto whooped in excitement and started shoving the rest of his pancakes into his mouth as fast as he could, rambling to Kuroo about the route they should take through the park this time around. To his credit, Kuroo didn’t chastise Bokuto for talking with his mouth full like Akaashi would have, and instead listened to Bokuto speak with a soft smile on his face. It was something he showed rarely in front of other people but came out naturally when he was comfortable and happy, and Oikawa felt it lifting his own mood as he finished the rest of his own pancakes in a much more methodical way.

The post-breakfast run took them around the park near their apartment, after which Bokuto proceeded to instigate a snowball fight with his two roommates. Oikawa felt like an overworked babysitter when he had to squat next to Bokuto in the snow and drag him out of the drift by his legs because “cool down does _not_ mean roll in the snow, Boku-chan!” with Kuroo off to the side, also squatting but only because he wasn’t able to remain standing through his laughter at the scene the other two made.

They returned to the apartment, each of them varying degrees of damp, and by unanimous decision, Bokuto was ushered into the shower first, leaving Oikawa and Kuroo to take their own showers second and third respectively after a quick game of rock-paper-scissors to decide the order. Kuroo was left grumbling with his freshly-showered boyfriend while Oikawa practically skipped into the bathroom to enjoy the hot water himself. He was tempted to take an especially long shower to let Kuroo suffer a little longer, but concern over the possibility of Kuroo catching a cold (and passing it on to him) won out over his inclination towards pettiness and he finished his shower in a relatively reasonable amount of time.

Oikawa was sitting on the couch, recently cleaned of its pancake batter splotches, with a towel simply resting on his head and his laptop on his lap while working on an assignment when a series of knocks sounded from the front door. He exchanged a glance with Kuroo who was lounging in the armchair nearby. Kuroo shrugged, a silent “like hell I’m getting up from this chair” before he returned his attention to his own laptop.

In the moment Oikawa took to take off his headphones and set down his laptop gently on the low coffee table, the knocks happened again, more persistently this time with an accompanying complaint of, “Oikawa, open the door, it’s cold outside!”

He did as the voice commanded, opening the door slightly to let Suga slip inside, a familiar flush on his face from the cold as he rubbed his hands on the arms of – of course – Oikawa’s coat.

Suga looked around quickly before offering a sheepish smile. “I’m actually pretty glad I got the right room – it would have been embarrassing to yell at some random stranger like that. Sorry for the intrusion.” He made his way over to the couch after shedding his shoes in the entryway, dropping his messenger bag before sinking into what had been Oikawa’s spot. He sighed with relief and waved at Kuroo in greeting while dragging one of the blankets draped over the couch to cover his legs.

“Don’t get too comfortable, Suga-chan,” Oikawa warned him lightly, ruffling his hair with the towel one last time. “We need to go back out to get groceries for dinner. In retrospect, it would have been better to meet at the grocery store.”

“Guess you should have worn your glasses when we set the time and place to meet.” Suga didn’t seem bothered by Oikawa’s lack of foresight as he pulled his phone from his coat pocket, tapping away at the screen rapidly.

“I was wearing my contacts, but fair enough.”

Oikawa was willing to let the matter go in favor of retreating to his bedroom to pull on a black sweater thick enough to keep the cold out and some comfortable blue jeans. He reasoned that the snow was going to ruin his hair anyway and opted to throw on a black beanie with a fluffy pompom on top. He checked his reflection in the mirror to make sure everything was in check – he wasn’t going to _completely_ disregard his looks in favor of practicality – before grabbing his wallet and phone and heading back to the living room.

Suga tilted his head back to look at Oikawa from where he was reclining on the couch and yawned pointedly. Honestly, Oikawa couldn’t tell if he was faking it or not. “You take such a long time to primp, I could have just taken a nap.”

“Beauty like mine takes time and effort,” Oikawa shot back lazily. “Ready to go get some groceries?”

Suga groaned but still threw off the blanket that had already migrated up to cover his entire body. Oikawa’s keys jingled as he picked them up from the dish where they all kept their keys, and like a trained dog, Bokuto stuck his head out from the hallway curiously.

“Oh, hey Suga! Long time no see!” He waved at the shorter man jovially, who responded in kind with a wide smile, before looking at Oikawa as he pulled on his black boots. “Hey, are you going grocery shopping? Can I come too?” He adopted a puppy-dog pout to go along with his request, and if Oikawa had been a weaker man (read: Kuroo), maybe he would have caved.

Instead, he crossed his arms and responded, “Absolutely not – the last time you went with me, you tried to sneak a pack of beef into the basket that would have blown the entire dinner budget!”

“But Oikawa,” Bokuto dragged out the name in a whine, “yakiniku!” He stressed the word as if Oikawa couldn’t possibly grasp the importance of such a dish. Which, to be fair, he couldn’t – at least, not to the extent that Bokuto seemed to embody.

Oikawa rolled his eyes. “Next time it’s your turn to cook dinner, you can get meat for yakiniku – _if_ you can afford enough to feed at least the three of us on the budget.”

“But that’s hard! Beef is expensive!”

Oikawa reached around Suga, who was pulling on his shoes, to pat Bokuto’s flat weekend hair soothingly. “The same can be said about life, Boku-chan. See you in a bit!”

He let himself and Suga out and shut the door on the rest of Bokuto’s complaints, tossing his keys into the air idly as they descended the three flights of stairs exposed to the cold winter air.

“I don’t actually know why I bothered taking these with me,” Oikawa mused after a minute of walking towards the nearest supermarket in companionable silence, jingling the keys in his hands. “It’s not like we lock the door when there’s at least one of us home – I didn’t even really need to open the door for you.”

Suga snorted, falling in step beside him with his hands buried deep in his borrowed coat’s pockets. “Just in case Bokuto decides to stage a meat mutiny and locks you out when you get back without the meat for yakiniku.”

“I wish I could say that’s never happened before, but unfortunately we have actually had a meat war in that apartment, and let me tell you, two on one against those overgrown children is _not_ easy.”

Suga patted Oikawa’s arm comfortingly, but the sentiment was rather ruined by his giggles. They made it to the supermarket within the next minute and Oikawa made a show of opening the door for Suga by waving his hand in front of it to activate the automatic sliding doors before bowing cheekily.

Suga took the opportunity to whack the pompom on Oikawa’s beanie in retaliation, knocking the hat askew before grabbing a basket and asking, “So what are you making, anyway?”

“Curry.” Oikawa straightened out his beanie before he started listing reasons off his fingers. “It’s easy to make a lot of it, it’s something we can all agree on eating, and it’s fairly low maintenance once you finish preparing all the ingredients, so I can help you study while it cooks on its own.”

“Will it be spicy?” Suga’s eyes shone at the idea.

Oikawa shook his head in the negative, smiling slightly at the immediate dejection on Suga’s face. “Boku-chan can’t handle spicy food at all, so I have to make it mild. Feel free to pick up some peppers or something for yourself, though – I can add them to a separate pot.”

“Oh, it’s fine.” Suga waved his hand dismissively. “I brought my own hot sauce, just in case.”

“Of course you did.”

Grocery shopping with Suga was a much more relaxing endeavor than it was when Oikawa went with Bokuto, and Oikawa found Suga’s willingness and, indeed, ability to help rather refreshing, since whenever he went with Bokuto or Kuroo, they tended to go off on their own and come back with items they really couldn’t justify buying. Instead, Suga and Oikawa managed to divide and conquer the supermarket – Suga picked out an onion, potatoes, and carrots while Oikawa picked up a box of curry roux, along with apples and another bottle of honey, since Bokuto and Kuroo had finished off the one in the apartment that morning with the pancakes.

“They’re the secret ingredients, Suga-chan! You’ll see!” was Oikawa’s justification when Suga looked at him concernedly upon seeing the items in the basket after dropping the vegetables in.

They meandered over to the meat section, weaving their way around housewives and their shopping carts full of time sale items. Once they made a space for themselves in front of the meat display, Oikawa weighed his options between chicken and beef before sighing and putting a pack of beef in the basket. He did feel a little bad for Bokuto in the end, and he knew both of his roommates would appreciate the gesture. 

“The beef’s on sale,” Oikawa defended himself, looking up and away from Suga’s knowing smile.

“Don’t worry, I won’t tell them you actually have a heart.”

They made it safely back to the apartment with the groceries split evenly in two bags between them, setting the bags down on the dining table and cataloguing the contents.

“The beef’s already cut, so we need to peel and cut the potatoes and carrots and cut the onion.” Oikawa tossed the onion to Suga, who caught it with a lighthearted glare and a little bit of fumbling. “Can I trust you to cut that?”

“What kind of host makes their guest make dinner?” Suga complained lightly, accepting a knife and cutting board from Oikawa anyway and making neat, precise cuts to deconstruct the onion.

“Those who don’t work, don’t eat,” Oikawa said, taking the potatoes and peeling them adroitly after rinsing the majority of the dirt off them. “Boku-chan and Tetsu-chan have to do all the dishes afterwards since they’re not cooking. It keeps us all sane and also gives us a reason to all get together at least once a week – our schedules rarely line up otherwise.”

“It’s a nice tradition to have.”

Suga’s statement was punctuated by a loud sniff. It caught Oikawa’s attention and he looked over in his peeling to see Suga wiping at his eyes with his bare forearms, exposed to the air of their apartment since he’d taken off Oikawa’s coat and rolled up the sleeves of his sweater.

“Aww, Suga-chan, were you that touched by how close our apartment is –”

Oikawa cut himself off with a yelp as he nicked himself with the knife, having taken his eyes off his potato-in-progress. He managed to set down the half-peeled potato and knife safely in the sink before moving reflexively to lick the blood oozing slowly from the cut. Before he could, Suga caught his wrist in a firm grip, looking at him disapprovingly with red-rimmed eyes.

“It was the onion, you dork. And don’t lick that, it’s not sanitary!” He turned on the faucet and pushed Oikawa’s hand under the stream, the cold water making Oikawa yelp again as it washed the blood away. “Go put a bandage on it and if you value your finger, _don’t lick it_! Do you even know how much bacteria is in your mouth? And you were just going to introduce all of them to an open wound?”

Suga’s nagging followed Oikawa all the way to the bathroom where they kept their first-aid supplies, even though the silver-haired man himself remained in the kitchen, picking up where Oikawa left off. By the time he came back with a bandage securely wrapped around his finger, the potatoes as well as the carrots were clean and peeled.

The rest of their preparation went uneventfully, though Oikawa could feel Suga glancing at him periodically while he cubed the potatoes and cut the carrots. Oikawa started cooking the vegetables and prompted Suga to sit at the dining table with his assignment since it was just a couple steps away from the stove.

“So what’re you working on?” Oikawa left the vegetables for a moment to lean over Suga’s shoulder and look at his textbook.

“See for yourself,” Suga replied, a bit exasperatedly.

Oikawa took a moment to scan the problems Suga had to do that were lightly marked with pencil before flipping to the introduction of the chapter and back. “I was going to tell a joke, but I can’t even say this isn’t rocket science because these mechanics are actually applied to basic simulations of spacecraft trajectories with respect to their escape velocities and the thrust required to achieve them–” a blank look from Suga had Oikawa backtracking in his excitement “—but no worries, Suga-chan, I can explain it all!”

And so he did, confident in his ability to expound upon all the basic theorems and formulas that Suga needed to do his assignment. He alternated between tending to the slowly-forming curry by grating the apples into the mix of vegetables and meat and adding a generous amount of honey, and tending to Suga’s questions with clear and concise explanations and gentle hints towards the correct answer. He’d already realized that Suga didn’t respond well to technical terminology but was still determined to understand the material. Oikawa reveled quietly in the light of realization that dawned in Suga’s eyes and enjoyed the understanding hums that Suga made whenever he grasped another concept due to Oikawa’s explanations.

Within a couple of hours, both the curry and Suga’s assignment had been completed, the smell of the former wafting through the apartment and drawing Kuroo and Bokuto out of their shared bedroom. Oikawa had to deal with an armful of Bokuto when the owlish man took a look in the pot and noticed the beef instead of the chicken Oikawa tended to use.

“I knew you loved us after all!” Bokuto laughed boisterously, nearly toppling Oikawa over with the force of his bear hug. He made it through the experience with Kuroo’s thumbs-up and Suga’s smile giving him strength.

A knock at the door caught their attention and Oikawa found himself suddenly free as Bokuto rushed over to open the door while yelling, “Keiji!” with Kuroo following behind him at a much more languid pace. The two men crowded the entryway where Akaashi was now taking off his shoes, showering him with loud affection – at least, Bokuto was, since Kuroo had settled for brushing snow off of Akaashi’s curls and pressing a kiss where the powdery ice had been.

“I’m happy to see you too, Koutarou, but please close the door. You’re letting the cold in.” Akaashi ducked past his two boyfriends to reach the dining table where Oikawa stood next to Suga, who turned in his seat to offer Akaashi a smile. “Thank you for having me over again, Oikawa-san, as well as taking care of those two.”

“No worries, Akacchi, I’m always happy to feed the cutest of you three,” Oikawa sang, expecting the predictably indignant cries of the other two men who trailed after their boyfriend. “And actually, Boku-chan was letting the heat out, since the second law of thermodynamics states – ow, Suga-chan!” Oikawa rubbed at the ear Suga had pinched with a pout, frowning at the seated man.

“No more physics. Please?” Suga returned the pout, and Oikawa found himself subconsciously admitting defeat – because really, how could he stand up against that image?

“And you are Suga-san, right?” Akaashi offered a short bow to Suga, who replied with an affirmative. “I remember meeting you and Sawamura-san when Tetsurou insisted on taking us to a bar.”

Suga thought for a moment before lighting up with recognition. “That was the pre-celebration for Kuroo’s birthday, right? I remember that – you weren’t twenty yet, so Kuroo insisted on being your black knight and ended up seriously drunk.”

“I had to deal with the aftermath of that once Boku-chan and Akacchi managed to drag him up the stairs here.” Oikawa sniffed as Akaashi dipped his head in acknowledgement. “I wanted to let him clean the toilet himself once he sobered up, but the smell was unbearable so I did it myself.”

“Wonderful pre-dinner talk, this is, truly,” Kuroo deadpanned, coming up behind Akaashi, “especially at my expense, but can we please eat now? My stomach feels like it’s going to eat itself.”

He made to wrap his arms around his stomach, but snuck his hands around Akaashi’s waist instead. Akaashi maintained a relatively straight face, but Oikawa could see him leaning back into Kuroo’s hold, even as he said patiently, “Tetsurou, that’s my stomach.”

“Keiji, it can hold more than the rest of ours combined,” Kuroo countered, resting his chin on Akaashi’s shoulder.

“I don’t know about this time, Tetsu,” Bokuto piped up, draping himself over Kuroo’s back. “I’m pretty hungry, so maybe if we all work together, we can beat Keiji this time!”

Suga looked at Oikawa questioningly, who proceeded to explain, “Akacchi eats a lot, and I mean a _lot_. I don’t know where he hides it all, but every time he comes over for dinner, we make it a competition to see if he can eat more than the rest of us by himself.”

With that, Oikawa moved back to the kitchen to start serving the curry, doling out appropriately sized portions of rice and curry on each plate and handing them out. A quick chorus of “Thanks for the food!” preceded their digging in, and sighs of contentment to outright moans gave Oikawa pride in what he’d accomplished in making.

“The beef definitely makes this a lot better, but it’d be good without too!” Bokuto rendered his statement almost unintelligible by speaking with his mouth full, prompting Akaashi to chastise him in what sounded like a rehearsed, “Swallow before speaking, Koutarou.”

“How about the blood, sweat, and tears I put into it? And I almost mean that literally,” Oikawa huffed.

“Well, it’s definitely sweet, but it can’t be your sweat or tears that’re doing that. Did you throw one of your milk breads in here or has your blood actually just taken on the flavor from how often you eat it?” Kuroo grinned, taking Oikawa’s answering smack on his shoulder without complaint.

“I didn’t actually expect the honey and apples to work well in this, but they do,” Suga admitted. “Consider me convinced.”

“Suga-chan, you doused your curry in so much hot sauce, I don’t think you would have been able to tell if you hadn’t seen me put it in. And speaking of, your plate looks positively diabolical.”

Their meal continued on in this fashion until they cleaned their plates, with Bokuto going for seconds and Akaashi for thirds, resulting in the apartment’s victory in that particular iteration of “Apartment vs. Akaashi”, but only just, since Suga had decided against aligning himself with either side, content to watch it play out as a spectator. They migrated to the living room, digesting their dinner with pleasant conversation and a few beers until Suga noticed the time nearing midnight.

“I should probably head back now, but I had a lot of fun! Thanks for letting me eat dinner with you all.” Suga smiled at the others sitting in the living room as he gathered up his borrowed coat and messenger bag.

“Do you want us to walk you back?” Bokuto asked, craning his head from where he was sitting on the couch with Kuroo’s head pillowed on his lap. Akaashi had opted to sit separately from them, to their dismay, but had compromised by sitting on the floor cushion by Bokuto’s feet. “We’re pretty strong – at least, Kuroo and I are. I’m not so sure about Oikawa, but we could definitely keep people off your back!”

“Hey!” Oikawa protested, following Suga over to the entryway.

“What? I could pick you up and carry you around if you want proof – it wouldn’t be the first time, anyway.” Bokuto grinned while flexing his – admittedly impressive – biceps.

Suga raised an eyebrow, turning his head to look at Bokuto directly. “When was the first time?”

“It’s a funny story, actually,” Kuro began, a smirk forming. “Oikawa’s pretty much a lightweight compared to me and Kou, so he just completely passed out after we went to this bar and he –”

“Alright, that’s quite enough!” Oikawa knew where this story was going and wasn’t quite ready to expose it as blackmail material for Suga – he already had to live with the people on the other side of the story and that was bad enough. There was another story even behind this story and Oikawa was nowhere near ready to relive that one again.

Luckily, Suga seemed to pick up on Oikawa’s sudden tension and discreetly laid a hand on his arm, a comforting weight felt through the thick knit of his sweater. “Thanks for the offer, but don’t let me impose on you any more – I’ll be fine. Despite how I might look, I can take care of myself.” Suga smiled and waved to them as he stepped out of the apartment, Oikawa following him to the stairs.

“Thanks for helping me with my assignment.” Suga smiled serenely over his shoulder. “I feel a lot better about the exam coming up.”

“It was my pleasure.” Oikawa returned the smile, pausing for a moment before he tugged on the hood of Suga’s – really, Oikawa’s, but also, apparently Suga’s – coat. “By the way, am I ever getting this back?”

“I don’t know,” Suga mused. “It’s pretty comfortable, and it suits me well enough, don’t you think?”

Suga did a mock twirl in the hallway, silver hair glinting in the fluorescent lighting. For a moment, Oikawa was enraptured by the play of flashing highlights in the shorter man’s hair. As he reached out to steady Suga in his brief dizziness, listening to the slightly breathless laughter that accompanied it, his agreement slipped past his lips like the still-falling snow.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some thoughts:
> 
> \- This chapter is a _lot_ longer than I thought it would be. I definitely wasn't aiming for this, because I tend to run out of steam the longer a chapter goes on ;w;  
>  \- I had them make curry because I love curry, especially Japanese curry. It's definitely good cold-weather food c:  
> \- Enter Bokuto and Akaashi! Akaashi didn't get too many lines, so I don't know if I managed to represent him well, but I do love him dearly ~~(90% of my favorite characters are setters, I swear it's a coincidence)~~.
> 
> I do so enjoy interacting with readers and knowing how much you all enjoy the story! Comments make me smile and I'd love to chat c:
> 
> Thank you for reading, Merry Christmas, and happy holidays!!


	4. defiant gleam

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Oikawa has a bad day and some good(?) friends.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Note: Amanai Kanoka is a character from the manga and her appearance in this story is minimal, but do beware of spoilers if you decide to look up any details about her!

As the nights grew longer and the calendar crept towards Christmas, Oikawa couldn’t say he was feeling the holiday cheer from the universe on this particular day.

It had started with a rude awakening from his phone buzzing incessantly on his nightstand. For as much as he loved to sleep in, he rather disliked his body’s inclination to wake up easily – though getting out of bed once he was awake was an entirely separate matter. If it weren’t for the fact that sometimes, these messages were actually important, and not just Kuroo or Bokuto pulling a prank on him, Oikawa would have made a habit out of muting his phone through the night a long time ago.

(Oikawa was currently recounting this series of unfortunate events to Suga as they sat by the fireplace at Pots in that odd time between late afternoon and early evening. They sat with their own respective blankets covering their legs with their feet up on the couch – they had planned on sharing the one blanket that’d been on the couch when they’d settled there, but since Oikawa had started splitting hairs by using proportions to figure out how much of the blanket they should each get based on their heights, Suga had made him get up and snatch one from another table.

“What kind of pranks have they managed to pull?” Suga asked with suspicious innocence, drawing up his knees to cover his mouth. “I’m curious.”

Oikawa made a face, feeling the annoyance of the memory echo forward. “There was one time they set what must’ve been a hundred alarms all for eight in the morning on a weekday. Every time I turned one off, the next one turned on, so I just turned off my phone.” He leveled a glare at Kuroo, who was working at the register and therefore unaware of the ire being directed at him. “Then I ended up late for class when I didn’t wake up until two.” Oikawa shook his head at the recollection. “I had to change the code for my phone after that.”)

As it stood, these messages were from Mizoguchi, one of the doctoral students in his astrophysics lab. Oikawa found himself groaning as he processed the timestamp of the messages before anything else – what was it with people wanting to wake him up at ten in the morning? Didn't they have any concept of beauty sleep?

(“That’s probably because functioning members of society have learned how to wake up at a reasonable time.” Suga picked at his nails idly, looking completely nonchalant.

“That’s what being in university is for! I’m allowed to sleep when I want until whenever I want until I graduate,” Oikawa argued, crossing his arms underneath the blanket.

“As long as you get all your work done, I suppose.” Oikawa wasn’t quite sure if he should be proud of taking advantage of the fact that his periodic displays of childishness never failed to make Suga laugh, but he didn’t think too hard on it – Suga laughing was a good thing.)

The gist of the messages told Oikawa that the other undergraduate student scheduled to work in the lab that morning had called in sick, and since Irihata, the principle investigator for the lab, knew for a fact that Oikawa was free that morning, he was being asked to come instead. At times like this, Oikawa cursed himself for not marking all of his mornings as busy when they’d had to submit schedules to the lab to arrange the shifts in the first place.

(Suga rolled his eyes. “Because you’re the first university student who hasn’t wanted to go anywhere at eight in the morning.”)

Of course, a “request” from the lab really meant, “do it or you’re not getting mentioned as an author on the paper,” so Oikawa dragged himself out of bed so that he could at least take a shower to wake himself up. Oikawa grabbed his towel and pushed open the door to the bathroom, only to find a conspicuously bright note stuck to the mirror over the sink. He recognized the scrawl as Bokuto’s chicken scratch since Kuroo had, by far, the prettiest handwriting out of the entire apartment. Oikawa swore he could do better than Kuroo if he tried harder and wrote slower, but he already put enough effort into being the prettiest, _period_ , out of the entire apartment, so he was willing to take second place where penmanship was concerned.

(“Wouldn’t a text message have worked just as well?” Suga wondered aloud.

“Boku-chan and Tetsu-chan both know they’re not allowed to text me before noon unless it’s an emergency,” Oikawa said with finality.)

What the note said was the more pressing concern, though. Bokuto had tried to take a shower earlier that morning and found that the pipes were frozen through, meaning there was no running water until they thawed out. He’d already let the landlord know, and the landlord had already known and was very apologetic, but they’d have to wait for a plumber to inspect the entire complex and leave the heat on in their apartment until then to help the thawing process along.

The last part helped Oikawa figure out why it hadn’t been nearly as much of a struggle to get out of bed as it normally was – the apartment was at a reasonable temperature because of the heater that’d been pushing air throughout the place for a couple hours. Even so, that still meant there was no shower to be had at that moment, so he had to leave for campus without even a splash of hot water to wake him up.

(Suga’s eyes flicked down to glance at Oikawa’s mouth distrustfully before meeting his gaze again with a slight frown on his face, prompting Oikawa to defend himself. “I brushed my teeth with the cup of water I keep on my nightstand – don’t look at me like that!”)

He made it to the lab within ten minutes, briskly walking through the winter wind aggressively lashing at the parts of his face that weren’t covered by his scarf.

He found Mizoguchi working at his desk, hunched over his computer with his head supported by his hand with an elbow on the desk, and greeted him as sunnily as he was able at half past ten in the morning. “How’s the morning been treating you, Mizo – guchi?!”

Oikawa took a step back as his voice rose in a yelp, some kind of instinct for self-preservation making him put distance between him and the gaunt figure that was masquerading as the doctoral student Oikawa had been working with for almost two years.

The zombie turned to face Oikawa completely, wiping at the dark smudges that had made themselves at home under his eyes. “Not well, if that wasn’t totally obvious.”

(Suga laughed at the charades Oikawa put himself through to show exactly how “dead man walking” Mizoguchi had seemed at that moment.)

“Can’t say I’m inclined to disagree there.” Oikawa patted the man’s shoulder gingerly, wary of the exhaustion that seemed to be seeping out of Mizoguchi’s every pore. “What do you need me to do?”

“Irihata-sensei’s been running a simulation for the past couple weeks – you know the one.” Oikawa nodded in recognition. “We need to collate the data and make it presentable so that he can take it to the next conference, but like I told you, Komaki called in sick. If you could work on it for however long you’ve got, it’d really help.” Mizoguchi pointed at the blank wall of his cubicle past his computer, confusing Oikawa for a second before he continued, “Amanai is already over there working on it, so you can sit with her.” A resounding clatter sounded from the other side of the wall at the mention of one of the other undergraduates working in the lab.

“Got it.” Oikawa sang the words lightly, leaving the doctoral student behind to find the aforementioned black-haired girl sitting rigidly in her chair, hand clenched tightly around the mouse of her computer.

“Morning, Ama-chan,” Oikawa greeted her, taking a seat next to her and dropping his bag and scarf on another empty chair. “How’s our project going?”

“Good morning, Oikawa-san!” She smiled at him much more genuinely than he’d been able to for Mizoguchi, which explained why he didn’t work with her too often – she took the morning shifts that none of the other undergraduates were willing to. “I’ve made some decent progress, but with your help, I’m sure we can get this done in less than half the time!”

Oikawa laughed. “You have so much faith in me, so I better live up to it.”

Even if Oikawa were being humble, he would have to say that her faith wasn’t misplaced – for as much as he complained and often undermined the seniority of the older graduate students by piping up with ideas at all of the lab meetings, he was an efficient worker because he wouldn’t stand for being anything less, especially when it concerned his field of study. Amanai herself was a great person to work with – sometimes clumsy when she spaced out, but overall a dedicated student who was open to suggestion and had a presence that was somehow both bubbly and calming. It was what had stood out to Oikawa most about her when she’d joined the lab at the beginning of the year – besides her impressive height.

(“Not even kidding, Suga-chan, she’s just barely shorter than I am. It’s amazing!”

“Don’t mock the vertically challenged,” Suga complained, citing his own pointedly average height.

Oikawa leaned forward and ruffled Suga’s hair, eliciting more complaints. “It’s okay, that just means you’re fun-sized.”

“Oikawa, I swear, I’ll push you off this couch.” Suga raised his feet threateningly, the toes in his thick wool socks wiggling in malice.

“Being sensitive about height is Yakkun’s job, I don’t think he’d – okay, okay, I’m stopping!”)

They made steady progress through the next two hours, bouncing ideas off each other and offering pointed questions that weren’t quite criticisms towards the other’s suggestions while organizing the massive amounts of data and making it intelligible to a layperson of their discipline.

Oikawa took a short break to stretch out his fingers and shoulders, feeling the multitude of cracks throughout his joints release the pressure that’d been building up. He sighed with relief and made to place his weary hands back on the keyboard when suddenly, his screen snapped to black and the entire lab dimmed with the overhead lights going out as well. The background hum of the electronics in the lab was conspicuously missing, showing just how accustomed to it he’d gotten before the ensuing silence.

“Are you serious?” Oikawa muttered to himself in disbelief. A blackout wouldn’t have mattered much if they’d been working with the data set on their own laptops, but the lab’s computers worked off of the electricity of the building, and with that gone, so was their ability to make progress.

A sudden cry from his left caught his attention immediately and directed it towards Amanai, who had her face buried in her hands. “Ama-chan? What’s wrong?” He laid a hand on her shoulder, leaning down to get a closer look at her face.

“Oikawa-san…” She was hunched over, watery eyes shining in the sunlight coming in through the lab’s windows. She looked absolutely downtrodden, a complete turnaround from when they’d been working on the data together a moment ago. “I was so caught up in working on one of the figures that – that I completely forgot to save it, and it’s – I hadn’t saved it since I started it! And I’d been working on it for more than an hour!” Her admittance was accompanied by a drawn-out groan as she hid her face in her hands again.

(Suga clicked his tongue sympathetically. “That’s a tough way to learn that lesson.”

“I was surprised, honestly – though that’s probably because I’d been saving my work pretty often myself, so I just assumed she’d been doing the same.”

“You know what they say about assuming.”

Oikawa rolled his eyes.)

A flicker of movement in the corner of Oikawa’s vision made him look up while he continued rubbing her back comfortingly, and he saw Mizoguchi looking around the corner of his cubicle at them. “One of my friends in the chemistry department said the power’s out all over. The wind probably blew something into the power lines, so we’re stuck for a while. Classes are probably cancelled for you too, so feel free to leave whenever.”

Oikawa was doubtful about his classes being cancelled even as he nodded to Mizoguchi – the only class he had today was taught by a professor that swore by chalkboards and probably didn’t even know how to do much more than flip on the lights in the classroom. An idea popped up at that and he returned his attention to Amanai, who was rubbing at her eyes vigorously. “Not all is lost, Ama-chan. At the least, you can write down some notes about what you did to make the figure and how you referenced the data – a pencil doesn’t need electricity!”

She perked up at the idea, a bright smile returning to her face as she straightened up – which prompted Oikawa to do the same, because it really was a little disconcerting to be shorter than her.

(“Aren’t you confident enough in your masculinity to be shorter than a girl?” Suga prodded at him with his toe, grinning.

“Suga-chan, I’ll have you know, I make a beautiful girl.”

Suga blinked, pausing for a moment before he spoke. “I was expecting you to add on to that, but you’re telling me you’ve dressed as a girl before? Tell me there are pictures. And a story.”

“Maybe another time.”

Maybe never, if Oikawa had anything to say about it. The cunning look Suga gave him didn’t make him feel too secure in his resolution, though.)

Oikawa sat with Amanai for the twenty or so minutes it took for her to essentially make a diagram of the thought process she’d gone through while making her figure, and he found himself simultaneously impressed by and terrified of her thoroughness as she talked herself through it. She sat back and sighed once it was done and turned to Oikawa with a smile. “Thanks for keeping me company. You didn’t have to stay and listen to me.”

“It was my pleasure, Ama-chan.” Oikawa returned her smile, checking his phone for the time. It was about approaching one, though the inopportune gurgle his stomach gave in the stillness of the lab would have worked just as well as an indicator. There was no other background noise or, indeed, any other person to attribute it to, since Oikawa had heard Mizoguchi leave the lab earlier. He glanced away at Amanai’s laughter. “My stomach sounds upset at me, though.”

“Do you want to grab lunch?” Amanai stood from her chair to full height, twisting her shoulders this way and that to stretch them out before she picked up her bag and hung it on her shoulder. “My treat, since I put you out of your way.”

“I wish I could, but I actually have to go to class now and I can’t be late,” Oikawa replied apologetically, offering another smile as he gathered up his things and followed her out of the lab. “You know how Washijou-sensei is, right?”

Amanai shuddered. “Too well. Another time, then. Eat right after you get out of class!”

“Will do!” He waved at her as they went their separate ways before he shoved his hands under his armpits for warmth to spite the cold wind snapping at his fingertips.

He did make it in time for the class, hauling himself up three flights of stairs to the designated classroom, but with how the day had been going, he really shouldn’t have expected to see his professor at the front of the room with chalk in hand. The only chalk he could see was already on the board, forming a message written in precise block letters to say that class had been cancelled. Oikawa collapsed into one of the desks anyway, groaning. It wasn’t too late to message Amanai and take her up on her offer for lunch, but just as he went to tap out a message to her, he received the first of what became a slew of frantic messages from Kuroo.

Tetsu-chan (12:58): hey are you busy

Tetsu-chan (12:58): im supposed to be working this shift with tsukki

Tetsu-chan (12:59): but hes running late for some reason

Tetsu-chan (12:59): i texted him but hes not answering

Tetsu-chan (12:59): and you know how bad the lunch rush is

Tetsu-chan (12:59): can you come help

Tetsu-chan (13:00): please

Oikawa was really this close to running out of the room and yelling at the universe in general to ask it just how much it planned on inconveniencing him that day. And in the end, he decided against it, because even if he did and somehow the universe had given him a second chance at the day, he would have substituted for Komaki, stayed to be Amanai’s moral support, and agreed to help Kuroo all the same.

(“Besides, I could tell he was desperate – Tetsu-chan never uses “please” sincerely if he can help it. Most times, it’s just him being sarcastic.”

“This is true,” Kuroo called out from behind the counter, exposing his eavesdropping on their conversation during a lull in the flow of café patrons. “You really did do me a big favor.”

“And I expect a bigger one in return.”

“Oya? What did you have in mind?” Kuroo leered at him, provoking an eye roll from Oikawa in return.

“I’ll be keeping that on reserve, so we’ll see.” Oikawa waved his hand at Kuroo dismissively. “Now shoo, it’s bad manners to listen in on people.

“We work in a café, what else is there to do in our downtime?” Kuroo acquiesced anyway, accepting a tray of dirty mugs from one of the café patrons with a smile and a “thank you, come again”.)

Oikawa (13:00): you’re lucky my class got cancelled

Oikawa (13:00): I’ll be there in 5

Oikawa pushed his way through the last of the students rushing to their classrooms, secretly hoping that their classes had also been cancelled just so that they would end up having climbed the stairs for nothing, just like he had. He made it to the café in under five minutes, walking faster through the cold so that he’d be out in it for less time, and caught Kuroo’s relieved smile as he weaved through the throng of chilly, caffeine-deprived students, waving and smiling at them as he went. Kuroo, on the other hand, received a smack on the shoulder and a finger pointed at his face once Oikawa made it behind the counter. “How long do I have to be here?”

Kuroo scratched the back of his head sheepishly, averting his eyes from Oikawa’s demanding stare. “Well, there’s still no word from Tsukki, and he’s got a four-hour shift today…”

It took all of Oikawa’s remaining willpower to not just lay himself down on the counter and gently pass away. “…Fine, but you’re handling _this_ ,” he pointed at the crowd from behind his hand while hissing the words in a whisper, “on your own for a bit while I eat one of the bagels in the back room.”

As it turned out, Oikawa’s conscience only let him eat half of a slightly stale blueberry bagel from Ukai’s stash before he caved and joined Kuroo in staving off the crowd. The people didn’t stop flooding the place and Oikawa burned himself no fewer than three times on all of the available sources of heat behind the counter in the rush to fill orders, but he maintained his service smile and demeanor throughout it all.

He even found himself on the receiving end of a customer’s rant and had to keep up a mask of genuine concern through her complaints of how she could definitely tell that they hadn’t used soy milk like she’d ordered and if she ended up getting sick from drinking milk, she’d tell all her friends to never come here again. Even though he was sure he’d made her drink perfectly (because even pushed to the limit like he had been the whole day, he would never make a mistake like that), he accepted the mug and cup gracefully and offered her a complimentary replacement and a complementary disarming smile. He reveled in the blush that overtook her angry flush, smirking at Kuroo once he turned his back on her, who gave him a discreet thumbs-up in return. After that though, Oikawa had resolved to stop working as soon as he figured Kuroo could handle the work on his own - which was approximately long three hours after he'd come to the rescue.

The results of that nightmare of a day found Oikawa where he was now, snuggled under one of the blankets towards the end of a long shift that wasn’t even supposed to be his in the first place, with Suga looking at him from the other end of the couch with sympathy.

“Here’s that bagel, by the way.” Kuroo lobbed it gently over to Oikawa from behind the counter, forcing Oikawa to grab it from out of the air before it landed on the floor. “Hey, nice catch.”

Oikawa took a bite out of it after shaking his head at Kuroo disapprovingly. “Did Tsukki ever reply?”

“Actually, yeah. Family emergency, he said. Hope he’s doing okay.”

Oikawa hummed contemplatively in agreement. From his limited experience with Tsukishima, he figured that if Tsukishima had simply wanted to skip out on his shift, he would have said as much, so Oikawa silently wished him the best as he finished off his bagel.

“So wait, _that’s_ all you’ve eaten today?” Suga asked, pointing at Oikawa and, presumably, the bagel that was slowly making its way down his esophagus.

Too slowly, actually, because Oikawa found himself rushing over to pour a cup of water from the self-service pitcher on the counter in order to down the contents immediately, sighing with relief as he felt the dense bread ball make its way down more smoothly. Kuroo patted him on the back, snickering as Oikawa glared at him before he replied, “I think so, yeah.”

“That’s really unhealthy.” Suga frowned before standing and looking up at Oikawa. “You need a proper meal – and some time to relax, from the sound of it. Come on.” He hefted his bag onto his shoulder for a moment before turning to Kuroo and asking, “Actually, is it okay if I leave this in the back for a bit? I don’t actually want to carry this around – there’re way too many textbooks in it.”

“Feel free.” Kuroo waved him through, giving a small bow and a grin as Suga went past while thanking him.

“That’s authorized personnel only, Tetsu-chan,” Oikawa reprimanded him mildly as he went past as well, slapping Kuroo’s arm down as the taller man attempted to block him.

“I authorized him and you witnessed it. No problem.” Kuroo dragged the words out lazily. “Heads up, Yaku and Hinata should be coming in soon to take over. I’ll probably still be here though, since I need to finish up some stuff.”

“Suit yourself.” Oikawa shrugged. As much as he enjoyed being in the café with friends, he was definitely ready for some time for himself. He grabbed his wallet from his bag and left everything else on one of the couches, motioning for Suga to leave his bag in the same place before they headed out, Kuroo waving after them as they stepped out into the dark with snow blowing gently around them. Oikawa’s eyes narrowed at the sky – it was still fairly early in the evening, just past four thirty.

Suga had gotten a few steps ahead of Oikawa before he noticed the lack of footsteps following him and turned around to see Oikawa looking at his phone. “Is something wrong?” He came back to stand next to Oikawa, tilting his head questioningly as his question came out in a puff of white.

“I was just wondering why it’s so dark out.” Oikawa pressed his shoulder to Suga’s to show him his phone. He wiped some snow off the screen before pointing to what he’d been looking at. “Turns out today’s the winter solstice – the longest night of the year.” Oikawa shook his head to dislodge the snow that’d settled on him while he’d been looking it up before he continued walking in the direction Suga had been leading them. “Sorry for the delay.”

“Don’t worry about it.” Suga twisted his hands together, his shorter strides crushing the snow underfoot more frequently than Oikawa’s own footsteps. The dissonance of the noises filled the short silence between the two before Suga spoke up again. “I should probably be the one apologizing for dragging you out to eat – though really, you should be doing that for yourself.”

“I accept ramen as an apology.”

Oikawa bumped him gently with his shoulder, careful to not actually knock Suga into the street since there was snow everywhere, silently hiding the solid ice underneath that was just waiting to make them slip. They crossed the street before they turned into an alley lined up and down with all sorts of restaurants that lit the walkway dividing them. The smells and sounds of a small ramen stall attracted them and they ducked through the fabric that partially obscured the doorway. The staff greeted them jovially and Oikawa indicated that there would only be two of them at the counter while Suga purchased the tickets designating their meal choice before he proffered both of them to one of the staff.

They chatted leisurely for a short while until their food appeared before them. Oikawa sniffed, partly to enjoy the rich smell of the broth wafting up from the bowl, but also as a dramatic touch to his fake swooning. “Aw, Suga-chan, you even got me an extra ramen egg. You shouldn’t have.”

Suga rolled his eyes at his antics, but the smile on his face betrayed any annoyance that might have conveyed. “I think you deserve it after the day you’ve had.”

Oikawa couldn’t find it in himself to hide his own wide smile, so instead he let it show as they both offered a quick “thanks for the food” that the staff reciprocated loudly before digging in. Oikawa scarfed it down, not having realized just how hungry he was until he started eating in earnest. Suga ate his own more deliberately, but only after coating everything in the bowl with chili oil from the condiments available. Oikawa could feel the sting of the heat from the spice in his eyes even though he wasn't eating it himself – and never would eat anything that vaguely resembled the color of a bloody traffic cone, since he had a sense of self-preservation.

They left the stall with high spirits and comfortably full stomachs, Oikawa offering up an extra wink to one of the female staff as she showed them out. He sighed happily, patting his stomach over his sweater as they walked back to the café. “Thanks for the meal, Suga-chan. I needed that.”

“Of course you did.” Suga smacked Oikawa on the back with punishing strength, making him cough in surprise. “Take better care of yourself – I can't always do it for you.”

“Is beating the air out of my lungs part of taking care of me? Because if so, I'm never going to trust you to be my doctor, even after you make it through medical school.”

Suga went quiet for a moment, and Oikawa felt compelled to look at him. Looking down at him, his hair gleamed defiantly in the light of the street lamp they passed by. It shielded his eyes from view, but before Oikawa could ask, Suga spoke up, nearly inaudible but with just the gentle smile on his face visible. “Thanks.”

Just the one word had Oikawa's head spinning. “You're very welcome, Suga-chan, but what exactly are you thanking me for?”

Suga looked up at him then, pressing his index finger to his lips playfully with the gleam from his hair moving to his eyes. “Maybe another time.”

Oikawa huffed at hearing his words from earlier thrown back at him. “That story is more expensive than a moment’s curiosity, I'll have you know. It'll take a lot more than that to get it from me!”

Oikawa took a particularly large step to get to the door of the café just before Suga did to throw himself inside first and punctuate his statement with his customary display of pettiness. However, as he did so, he caught Kuroo’s gaze and took notice of the grin on the man’s face.

“I know that look,” Oikawa said warily, checking the floor for suspicious liquids in case Kuroo was trying to make a spectacle of him. “What did you do?”

“Oh, nothing.” Which really translated to _something_ Oikawa was probably not going to enjoy the results of. It was the same “nothing” that had forced Oikawa to drag himself out of bed way after midnight because he had to go collect Bokuto and Kuroo from a police box for trying to steal a traffic sign. “I just thought that there wasn't quite enough green in the café – winter kills off everything, so I thought it'd be a good time to add some more.”

“Tetsu-chan, I wish you had told me earlier that you were colorblind, because there is green literally _everywhere_ in this café.”

Well, really, there was also a lot of red and white because of the poinsettias and paperwhites Takeda had given Ukai to celebrate the holidays in the café, but still.

“Sure, everywhere – except for right above where you're standing.” The grin on Kuroo’s face was indescribably smug at this point, having grown throughout their entire exchange.

Oikawa should have suspected he was going to do something like this when he didn't immediately go back to the apartment after his shift ended. In fact, he was willing to bet that Kuroo had been planning for this for quite some time and he and Suga just happened to be the ones caught in his trap of –

“Mistletoe, really?” Suga laughed and batted at the ball of leaves and berries strung up above them, arguably innocuous with the festive ribbons adorning it since it did fit in with all the other plants in the café – except in the nefarious intentions of the one who placed it, who was now whistling and calling out to them, “You know how it works!” and attracting the attention of the (thankfully few) other patrons of the café.

It also drew out Yaku and Hinata from the back room, the former crossing his arms and sighing at the sight. “That’s the last time I ever have faith in Oikawa’s observational skills.” He handed Kuroo some coins, the latter pocketing them with a grin.

“Yakkun, you _knew_ he was going to do this?” Oikawa's voice rose in indignation. Sure, Yaku had been Kuroo’s friend since high school, but this was betrayal of the highest caliber – Oikawa knew where Kuroo _lived_ and he was inclined to take advantage of the knowledge with this turn of events.

Yaku shrugged, raising an eyebrow. “I helped him put it up, actually.” Oikawa bit his tongue on the question of logistics that immediately came to mind at that statement, considering the height difference between the two men. “I just didn't think you'd actually fall for it.”

“Oikawa-san, it's mistletoe!” Hinata exclaimed brightly, not clueing in at all to the death glare Oikawa was now shooting Kuroo and his self-proclaimed partner-in-crime. “You should kiss Suga-san – it's tradition!”

“Yeah, what's the problem, Oikawa?” Suga echoed teasingly from behind him, making Oikawa splutter as he turned to face the shorter man, who was far too entertained for being caught in such a dastardly trick.

“Not you too, Suga-chan!”

“Here, I'll even make it easy for you.”

Suga closed his eyes and craned his neck up towards Oikawa, reducing the distance between their faces and exacerbating the graceless speechlessness Oikawa was experiencing. He leaned up towards Oikawa with his hands holding onto the handle of the door behind him for support. Like that, Oikawa could see every detail on Suga's face. He could see the faint dark circles under his eyes, lined by the bright arcs of long, thick lashes. He could see the reddened tip of Suga's nose, a last stand by the cold to leave its mark on him. He could see the loose eyelash that had made its home on Suga's cheek that made his hand twitch with the instinct to brush it away and make a wish. He could see the dark beauty mark near Suga's left eye, a spot with no texture unique from the surrounding, seemingly soft skin. He could see the cracks in Suga's lips that were quirked up in an amused smile, though whether they were from worrying at them with his teeth or the insistent wind outside, he didn't know.

He saw so much in that moment that he had to close his eyes and shake his head to physically filter out the images so that maybe he could get ahold of his thought process again. Perhaps that moment had taken just as long as he felt it had, because while he was trying to gather his thoughts without his sight to distract him, he heard a sigh and felt a tug on his neck before his eyes flew open.

A warmth Oikawa was sure was an impressive blush invaded his face where Suga's lips made contact with his cheek. He had barely enough time to register the sensation of Suga's surprisingly soft lips pressing gently against his skin before they were pulled away. His body only chased the sensation, leaning towards Suga as he retreated, because of Suga's hand pulling him down by his neck, he would later assure himself. He had to resist the urge to touch his face where Suga’s lips had left him and instead he stared at Suga dazedly.

The airy feeling that had accompanied the whole experience was shattered in an instant by the sharp flick against his forehead once Suga's hand left his neck.

“You took so long that I had to do it myself,” Suga complained, breezing past him to match Kuroo's high five with one of his own and a grin.

“Assault!” Oikawa cried, whirling around to see both the display of camaraderie and Yaku lifting his hands away from Hinata’s eyes. “Betrayal! Were you working with Tetsu-chan the whole time?!”

“What do you mean? I just wanted you to eat a proper meal at some point today. What Kuroo did while we were gone has nothing to do with me.”

Suga sounded completely sincere, which would have normally only served to make Oikawa even more suspicious, but he couldn’t muster the feeling with Suga smiling at him like that. Even the (very real) possibility of it being a coordinated prank couldn’t drive Oikawa to do much more than sigh and say, “What a day,” as he gave in to his urge to lay his hand on his face, disguising it as a motion of exasperation when really, he wanted to see if the electricity lingering under the skin of his face would spread to his hand.

(It did.)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some thoughts:
> 
> \- This chapter veered off-track and went on even longer than the last chapter, but I had (too much) fun giving Oikawa a hard time.  
> \- This was pretty self-indulgent because I've been yelling at them to "just kiss already" since they met. @w@  
> \- The only prompt I had for this chapter was literally "mistletoe for Christmas," and somehow that required a 5,000+ word lead-up. /bangs head on wall
> 
> Thank you all so much for reading!! Please do let me know what you think - I love reading your comments and chatting with you!! c:
> 
> This will be the last chapter for this year, so see you all next year!! Happy New Year!! ^^


	5. treacly treason

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There are some feelings on the way to an owl café.

“I literally can’t take you anywhere anymore – the last time you went to an owl café, you tried to kidnap one!”

“But it was so cute and soft!” Bokuto whined, angling himself away from Oikawa’s scolding by using the couch as a shield.

“How did you even think that would work out?! That owl was bigger than your head and you just thought you could cut it free and waltz out with it into Tokyo without anyone noticing?” Oikawa couldn’t comprehend how Bokuto thought the relative attractiveness of whatever living creature he’d tried to filch absolved him from actually trying to take it.

“Well, I mean –”

“Same goes for you, Tetsu-chan!” Oikawa pointed a finger accusingly at Kuroo, who promptly looked away and whistled a cheery tune. “You both need to stop trying to steal things that aren’t yours!”

“But he was my spirit animal, you even said if I were a cat, that one would have been me!”

Oikawa threw his hands up in despair. “That doesn’t mean you –”

He cut himself off when he realized his voice couldn’t go any higher in all of his incredulity. He coughed to clear his throat and glared at the two overgrown children that were sending him puppy-dog eyes. “No means no, and that’s final! If you really want to go so badly, you’d better take Akacchi with you because obviously you two can’t be trusted to go anywhere without an adult!”

To Bokuto and Kuroo’s credit, they didn’t even bother pointing out that Akaashi was the youngest of their trio because everyone knew, without a doubt, that Akaashi was the most mature out of them all. Instead, they looked to each other with a renewed sparkle in their eyes, and Oikawa realized his mistake just as Bokuto fumbled for his phone to call Akaashi. He dragged his hand down his face and groaned as Bokuto and Kuroo momentarily forgot about the existence of the speaker phone option once Akaashi picked up, smashing the phone in between their faces in order for them to both hear the muted words coming from it.

“Hey, hey, hey, Keiji! Oikawa and Suga are going on a date to an owl café and it sounds like fun, do you want to come with?” Oikawa was tempted to refute the term, but also knew that Akaashi would be more than level-headed enough to know that Bokuto was just making things up.

“He means that Oikawa refused to let us go with unless you also went because he thinks we’ll steal some animals or something.” Kuroo rolled his eyes from where he was resting his chin on Bokuto’s shoulder while listening in on the conversation, bringing the throbbing vein in Oikawa’s forehead to the forefront of Oikawa’s attention.

The duo paused in their three-way conversation for a moment to look over at Oikawa after something Akaashi said, holding the phone towards Oikawa. “Can you wait like fifteen minutes for him to get here? He’s coming from campus, so it won’t take too long,” Kuroo said.

“Grab Suga-chan too, then.” Oikawa raised his voice so that the phone could pick up his voice. “He should be hanging around the library since he was studying today – which is also why we’re going to the café in the first place, by the way!” Oikawa crossed his arms, a half-frown on his face. “Finals are soon, or did you forget?”

Bokuto waved his hand at Oikawa dismissively, bringing the phone back to his ear halfway through Oikawa’s tirade. “You caught that, right? …Okay, see you soon! Love you!” Bokuto held out the phone to Kuroo for him to utter a quick “love you too, Keiji,” before tapping the screen to end the call and whooping excitedly. “Hey, Tetsu, help me do my hair so we can leave once Keiji gets here – it’ll take too long otherwise.” He motioned to the pale, black-streaked hair that lay flat on his head, the strands soft and pliable as Kuroo ran a speculative hand through them.

“I like your hair like this, though,” Kuroo mused. “Plus, all that gel on my hands feels gross, I don’t know how you and Oikawa do it all the time.”

“Excuse me, I don’t go plastering it all over my head like Boku-chan does!” Oikawa had a feeling his voice was never going to come back down to its normal range at this rate as he looked at Bokuto in shock. “Why would you even ask Tetsu-chan to help? Just look at him!” He pointed at Kuroo’s perpetual bedhead, prompting Kuroo to shrug. “He obviously doesn’t know his way around a comb, let alone gel – I’m obviously the better choice here!”

“Well, every other time I might’ve wanted to ask you for help, you’re always busy doing your own hair,” Bokuto pointed out defensively before breaking out in a grin. “But hey, if you’ve got time now, I’d appreciate it!”

“If I don’t save you from your own bad decisions, Tetsu-chan evidently won’t, so I don’t really have a choice, do I?” Oikawa sighed, herding Bokuto into the bathroom. “Let Akacchi and Suga-chan in when they get here,” he called out over his shoulder to Kuroo, who signaled back with a thumbs-up from where he’d plopped himself on the couch.

Oikawa found that it took exactly the fifteen minutes for a knock to sound on the door for him to wrestle Bokuto’s hair into a relatively neater version of his usual style that also took approximately half as much gel as Bokuto was used to using himself. He let Bokuto marvel at his work in the bathroom mirror for a solid thirty seconds before he ushered the boisterous man back out towards the entryway, where Kuroo had already engulfed Akaashi in a hug, with Suga trailing behind, an amused smile on his face.

“Tetsu-chan, when I said let them in, I meant into the apartment, not just let them freeze in the doorway,” Oikawa drawled, waving a greeting at Akaashi who tried his best to bow shallowly with Kuroo’s weight hanging off of him. “Thanks for coming, Akacchi – if you were busy, you didn’t actually have to come and babysit them.”

“I don’t mind, though I apologize that they’ve caused you so much trouble.” Akaashi shook Kuroo off for the moment it took to bow properly before getting dragged into the apartment by Bokuto, who spun him around in a circle before setting him back down. He took a moment to get his bearings back before patting Bokuto on the arm in return and continuing, “Suga-san told me you’re going to help him study physics at the café?”

“That’s part of the overall plan to recruit Suga-chan for the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, yeah.” Oikawa nodded solemnly before doubling over from a jab to the kidneys from Suga, who continued past him to settle into the armchair with a sigh.

“Is that how you treat the person who’s going to save your grade in physics, Suga-chan?” Oikawa complained, trying to massage the pain away.

“It’s how I treat people who do nice things with ulterior motives.” Suga spoke over Oikawa’s protests of pain, laughing airily. “Are we leaving soon or should I just resign myself to taking a nap in this chair?”

Oikawa glanced at the others in the room and zeroed in on Kuroo before replying, “Akacchi and Boku-chan are basically ready to go, but Tetsu-chan needs to put on some clothes that aren’t pajamas before I go out in public with him.”

“It’s my day off, what do you want from me?” Kuroo plucked at his cat-print pajama pants – a Christmas present from Kenma delivered via said pudding head’s bubbly, orange-haired boyfriend at the café during his last shift –while grinning lopsidedly and retreating to his and Bokuto’s bedroom. Bokuto followed after him, complaining about how his ears were already cold before coming back with a beanie smothering his carefully-crafted hair, leaving Oikawa to wonder why he even bothered trying, sometimes.

“It’s already almost dark out, so don’t spend the rest of the day primping,” Oikawa called after Kuroo, getting a response on Kuroo’s behalf not from the man himself, but from Suga instead, who laughed and said, “You’re one to talk!”

“This,” Oikawa said as he gestured to his outfit and hair in particular, “takes time and effort, unlike whatever Tetsu-chan does to make himself presentable.” Oikawa rolled his eyes, reaching towards the coat rack for the coat he used to own out of habit. His hand closed around air and he glanced at Suga before confirming his suspicions that Suga was, indeed, wearing said beige coat yet again, and sighed in a half exasperated, half fond huff before settling for his dark wool pea coat instead. He saw Akaashi looking at him with as much curiosity as the younger man could deign to show, but didn’t bother elaborating as Kuroo came slinking back out in proper everyday clothes, a grin on his face completing the look.

“That just means there’s less work that needs to be done on me, right, Keiji?” Kuroo crooned to the shorter man, sweeping Akaashi up into a loose hug and burying his face in the shorter man’s dark curls.

“I think you and Koutarou would actually benefit from adopting certain aspects of Oikawa-san’s regimen,” Akaashi mused, nodding to the thumbs-up Oikawa gave from behind Kuroo’s back. “Oikawa-san did Koutarou’s hair today, right? It looked good.”

“Why, yes, I did help Boku-chan with his hair – I’m glad you could appreciate it before he put on that hat.” Oikawa bowed slightly with a cocky smile on his face.

“Hey, hey, Keiji, do you mean it doesn’t normally look good?” Bokuto visibly deflated at the idea, seeming to want to melt into the doorway he was leaning on.

“That’s not what I meant, Koutarou – I enjoy your hair no matter how you style it. I was stating that Oikawa-san did do a good job of recreating your usual hairstyle.” Akaashi’s tone was placating, and he reached out to hold Bokuto’s hand reassuringly. The owl-eyed man perked up immediately at the contact, smiling brightly in agreement as he clasped Akaashi’s hand in between both of his.

“He did, didn’t he? Hey, Oikawa, teach me how to do it your way next time!”

“Only if you don’t throw a hat on it immediately after I go through all the trouble.” Oikawa nodded once, smiling discreetly at the childlike excitement Bokuto immediately reclaimed upon his agreement. “Are we ready to go?” Some murmurs of agreement and a resounding “Yeah!” from Bokuto. “Okay, it’s a fifteen minute train ride to the station closest to the café, so I’ll call them now to make a reservation. Don’t forget your physics materials, Suga-chan, _we’re_ going there to work!”

The five of them made their way over to the train station, jostling each other and making lighthearted conversation all the while. Oikawa was particularly proud of being able to sweet talk the worker who answered the call into allowing them to reserve two tables for a party of five, though he had to endure pointed stares from Suga all the while.

“She wasn’t going to let us all go in at the same time otherwise,” Oikawa whined after bidding the worker a cheery goodbye. “Don’t look at me like that, Suga-chan!”

“I’m not looking at you in any particular way, but since you think I am, that just means you know you’re doing something I don’t approve of,” Suga said airily, rolling his eyes.

Upon reaching the station, the group let out a collective groan, though with minimal contribution from Suga and a raised eyebrow from Akaashi. “I forgot it was rush hour,” Oikawa muttered, eyeing the hordes of people streaming out of the ticket gates. They let themselves through the ticket gates anyway, Oikawa spearheading the advance while using his height to keep men from stepping on them and his charm to make the harried housewives avoid him instead of the other way around. Being the shortest of the group, Suga was the most prone to being swept away from them in the crowd, so Oikawa caught hold of his hand to drag him up to the front of their little group. “Don’t get lost, Suga-chan.”

“That’s a jab at my height, and I resent that.” Even so, Suga didn’t let go of Oikawa’s hand, and Oikawa couldn’t tell if he was imagining the tightening of his grip on Oikawa’s hand.

They reached the platform without incident, but once the train arrived, they found themselves packed in like sardines, the chill from the outside beaten off by the heat from both the heaters on the ceiling of the train car and the presence of so many bodies in the enclosed space. Oikawa found himself sitting in a seat next to the door, having plopped himself down as soon as its previous occupant had vacated it, with Suga standing in front of him, holding onto a strap for balance with one hand and keeping the other in his coat pocket.

The hand in his pocket moved periodically, prompting Oikawa to ask, “What’s in there?”

“A hand warmer.” Suga withdrew his hand to reveal the rectangular sachet before replacing it in his pocket. “I’ve got one in each pocket.”

“And you’re not sharing? Mean!” Oikawa pouted. “My hands get cold too, you know!” He took his hands out from where he’d been sitting on them and wiggled his fingers for emphasis, the harsh lighting of the train drawing attention to the faint purple tinge his nails had taken on due to said cold.

“I have some extras in my bag if you want.” Suga made to reach for the bag he’d put on the rack over Oikawa’s head, but Oikawa shook his head emphatically before he could.

“We can just share – I wouldn’t want to waste fresh ones on such a short trip.”  

“And how exactly do you plan on doing that?” Suga quirked a brow questioningly.

Oikawa took it as a challenge. “I _was_ just going to take the one you’re not using since you have to hold on, but I can just do this instead.” Grabbing a handful of Suga’s coat, Oikawa pulled Suga a step closer so that his shins touched the edge of Oikawa’s seat as he stood in between Oikawa’s feet. He shoved his hands inside Suga’s coat pockets, laughing at the small yelp Suga let out as he recoiled from Oikawa’s cold hand touching his own. Oikawa sighed contentedly, the warmth from the packets slowly seeping into his numbed fingertips. He adjusted his hand so that his knuckles weren’t digging into Suga’s hand, instead matching their palms and easily lacing their fingers together around the hand warmer in his coat pocket.

“Don’t you own any gloves? Your hand feels like ice,” Suga noted, his index finger rubbing the skin on the back of Oikawa’s hand, which Oikawa was sure was helping chase the cold out of his hands out of sheer magic.

“Gloves are such a hassle,” Oikawa whined. “And my hands are too nice to keep tucked away inside some smelly old gloves anyway.”

“They won’t be so nice when your skin is dry and cracked from the cold,” Suga chided.

Oikawa raised an eyebrow. “Is that what happened here?” He reluctantly removed one of his hands from Suga’s coat pocket in order to point at Suga’s lips. He’d meant to keep his index finger a reasonable distance away from Suga’s mouth, but a bump in the train’s movement jostled him enough to have his finger brush against Suga’s bottom lip. He pulled his hand away quickly afterwards in case the train decided to have him accidentally poke Suga’s eye out as well, but the fleeting touch was enough for Oikawa to reaffirm that Suga really needed to take care of his skin, a comment that he voiced aloud concernedly.

“It’s just a bad habit, is all.” As if to punctuate his statement, he drew his bottom lip into his mouth, tugging at it with his teeth as he averted his eyes. Oikawa could see the skin peel away in flakes under the scraping of Suga’s teeth and lightly squeezed the hand still sharing space with his own in Suga’s coat pocket.

“You should try and break it then.”

Suga hummed noncommittally with a small smile. “I’ll try.”

At the least, talking to Suga kept him from worrying at his lips even more, so Oikawa endeavored to keep him engaged in conversation for the remainder of their train ride, gesturing with whichever hand happened to be free while he warmed the other in Suga’s pocket. In the middle of telling Suga exactly how much hairspray he _didn’t_ use every day (“The smell is noxious, Suga-chan, gel works so much better!”), from across the train, Kuroo caught Oikawa’s attention by waving at him and pointing at the door, prompting Oikawa to look up and confirm that their stop was coming up.

“Our stop’s next,” Oikawa relayed to Suga, who stepped back so that Oikawa could stand up, rocking slightly on his feet with the swaying of the train and gripping the overhead strap a little more firmly. “Don’t forget your bag – actually, here.” Taking advantage of the height he had on Suga, Oikawa turned and easily reclaimed it from the overhead rack, slinging it over his own shoulder and flashing a peace sign at Suga’s protests.

The five of them disembarked once the train slowed to a stop, and Oikawa was glad to have Akaashi there in that moment since he didn’t have to do a headcount for the two under the younger man’s jurisdiction. He opened his mouth to thank Akaashi for his services, only to have a yelp of pain come forth instead from Suga nailing him in the side with a ridiculously solid punch. He bent over to clutch at what was surely a newly-forming bruise and felt Suga’s bag slip from his shoulder. “I was going to give it to you eventually, why did you have to hit me?!” Oikawa cried as Suga readjusted the strap to rest on his own shoulder.

“I could’ve gotten it myself just fine,” Suga huffed.

“Where are we headed anyway?” Bokuto chimed in, one arm linked with Kuroo’s and the other slung around Akaashi’s shoulders.

“I’ve got the directions, hold on.” Oikawa straightened, wincing at the residual pain under his ribs as he checked the location on his phone. “It’s ten minutes from the north exit.” He studied the map for a moment before pocketing his phone so he wouldn’t run into people while they walked, the destination clear in his mind as he started walking. He heard languid, measured footsteps catch up with him and looked to see Kuroo keeping pace with him, while Suga hung back, getting caught up in conversation with Bokuto and Akaashi. Oikawa couldn’t hear what Akaashi said over the din of the crowded station, but whatever it was made Bokuto light up almost literally and Suga laugh heartily, nodding in agreement.

“So you wanna tell me what I was looking at during the train ride?” Kuroo drawled, that knowing smirk plastered on his face.

“Akacchi and Boku-chan were right next to you, so I don’t think I want to say it aloud,” Oikawa replied mildly.

Kuroo rolled his eyes. “Not saying they’re not easy on the eyes, but that’s not what I was talking about. You and Suga were getting pretty cozy – you’re telling me you weren’t doing it on purpose?”

“It was an economical decision,” Oikawa fired back, aware of the implications of Kuroo’s question but not having any of it. “My hands were cold and Suga’s pockets were warm.”

“You sure they’re Suga’s pockets? I’m pretty sure that coat’s yours, since it’s the one –” Kuroo cut himself off and raised an eyebrow at Oikawa’s hand gripping his wrist tightly, a bare hand wrapping around Kuroo’s sleeve.

“I know.” Oikawa cut him off, gritting his teeth before he sighed through his nose and released Kuroo’s arm. “It’s not like Suga-chan needs to know that, though.”

Kuroo’s playful tone softened to one of vague resignation as he breathed out his next words while he weaved around the people walking between him and Oikawa. “You’ve been ignoring Mattsun and Makki’s texts, haven’t you.” It wasn’t a question. “They just want to know when you’re going back for spring break.”

Oikawa was tempted to say ‘never,’ but his mom and sister would sooner come down to Tokyo and kidnap him than let him skip out on family time, and he knew Kuroo knew that. Kuroo had fielded more than his share of calls from them when he and Oikawa had started living together, after all. “I haven’t thought about it much.”

“Well, you might want to make up your mind soon.” Kuroo clapped him on the shoulder heartily, and Oikawa narrowed his eyes at not only the sound impact of his hand but also the implications of his statement. Kuroo took it as a nonverbal cue to explain himself, since he went on to say, “They _might’ve_ already asked me when your finals end so they can swoop in and catch you before you spirit yourself away like you did last break.”

His words sped up towards the end of his rambling and ended with a grunt as Oikawa elbowed him in the side from underneath his arm. “That’s treason, Tetsu-chan.” His complaint was half-hearted at best, especially since he knew that Kuroo had divulged his schedule with his own heart in the right place.

“Love you too.” Kuroo grinned easily, not completely masking his relief at Oikawa’s relatively calm acceptance of his admission of guilt.

“Hey, hey, hey, what’s this?” Bokuto’s loud complaints preceded the man himself popping up behind the two. “Are you cheating on me and Keiji with Oikawa again, Tetsu?”

“’Again’?” Suga repeated amusedly, catching up with Akaashi in tow.

“He always makes this kind of joke whenever Oikawa-san and Tetsurou get ‘too close for his comfort,’” Akaashi explained mildly. “He thinks it puts their ‘bromance’ at risk, or something of the sort.”

“It’s what we started with, you can’t blame me for wanting to keep it up!” Bokuto defended himself, flailing indignantly in a way only he could.

“Understandable, Koutarou,” Akaashi said to placate him, “but do try not to hit any innocent bystanders.” His second statement was accompanied by his bowing slightly in apology to one of the harried salarymen that glanced at Bokuto after narrowly dodging a hit from one of his arms.

Oikawa stopped and checked the sign of the building in front of them – it proudly declared “Owl are welcome to our humble café on the second floor!” in a bubbly scrawl with the hours printed more neatly beneath. “Looks like this is it.” They scaled the narrow staircase in a single file line, pressing themselves against the wall to let other patrons who seemed to be leaving the café walk down on the other side of the stairs. Oikawa flashed them a smile as they went, eliciting giggles and whispers that echoed back up the stairway.

“We’re not even working – do you have to do that?” Kuroo complained.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about, Tetsu-chan.” He would have needled at him more for fun, but they reached the landing of the owl café too quickly for him to say anything else. A receptionist greeted them as they went through the door, Bokuto already craning his neck and practically shaking Akaashi in his excitement as he exclaimed, “Look, Keiji, there they are!”

“Welcome!” The receptionist’s nametag identified her as Nakajima, a charmed smile on her face as she took in the group. “Have you already made a reservation?”

“I think I spoke with you on the phone earlier?” Oikawa smiled back at her, leaning on the counter. “I’m Oikawa – I booked a table for five.”

“I do remember your name, Oikawa-san! Please give me a moment to look up your reservation – is this your first time here?”

“Unfortunately so, otherwise I would have had the pleasure of meeting you earlier, Nakajima-san.” The line rolled smoothly off of Oikawa’s tongue, and he swore he could hear at least two of the people behind him rolling their eyes – probably Kuroo and Suga, since Bokuto was still enamored with what few owls he could see from the entryway and Akaashi tended to remain neutral in these interactions.

Either way, she laughed shyly before replying, “Then I’ll have my coworker explain the rules to you once he takes you to your table. Please leave your shoes here and disinfect your hands, and someone will be right out to lead you inside!”

Getting all their shoes off in the relatively narrow entryway to the café was no mean feat for men of their stature – Suga excluded, Oikawa would point out if he weren’t sure he’d get kick to the back of the knees for his efforts.

“Get your _butt_ out of my _face_ , Tetsu-chan, I swear –”

Oikawa’s complaints were smoothly cut off by a cough from the worker now looming over their hunched and harried forms. He glanced up and did a double take to make sure that Suga was still hanging back with Akaashi, out of the way of Kuroo’s and Bokuto’s limbs, because the man standing before them could have easily passed for Suga’s evil twin, with the darkened tips of his hair standing out like devil’s horns and his stony expression at odds with the lighthearted atmosphere of the café. Oikawa had to wonder if his hair was naturally fluffed that way or in some way an homage to the horned owls he saw on the café’s roster.

“Oh, Semi, you work here?”

The man’s – Semi’s – initially severe expression lightened with Suga’s exuberant question and he smiled lightly, replying with a low, “Yeah, I started a couple of weeks ago. If you’re all together, you can follow me.” He directed the second statement to the group as a whole before he nodded to Suga. Bokuto, still messing with the laces on his shoes, offered a quick apology to Suga, who waved it off as he tiptoed around him to catch up to Semi and lay a hand on his shoulder.

“I haven’t heard from you in ages! I run into Shirabu around campus sometimes, but he’s always got his head in the books and it’s hard to get a decent conversation out of him when he’s like that.”

“Don’t you mean he’s always like that? I’ve never known him to be good at conversation, period.”

“I mean…”

They carried their conversation away with them as Suga followed Semi deeper into the café, waving apologetically with a small smile before turning back to grin at something Semi said.

“Suga’s got good taste,” Kuroo commented airily, patting Oikawa on the shoulder before turning to Bokuto. “Okay, Kou, seriously, I don’t know what you do to your poor shoelaces, but you _have_ to learn how to tie them properly.”

Oikawa stared after the retreating backs of the silvery-haired men and couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he’d lost something, with Akaashi’s calm tones overlaying Bokuto and Kuroo’s lighthearted barbs and the noises melding into a comfortable buzz in his ears.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some notes:
> 
> \- I don't have any excuses for leaving this story alone for so long, and I apologize - I'll claim uni and whatnot, but I just wasn't particularly inspired to write for quite a while. I'm not even completely satisfied with this, but it's been stuck like this for a week and it'd be better for me to move on.
> 
> \- They didn't even make it into the cafe, what am I even doing? I haven't even settled on whether or not I want the next chapter to be about them in the cafe because I'm just - so mentally done with this scene already. Maybe I'll turn it into flashbacks or something.
> 
> \- Enter Semi! He's definitely my favorite character from Shiratorizawa, and I hope I'll get to do him justice now that he exists in this universe. c:
> 
> Thank you so much for reading, and please let me know what you think! If nothing else, comments from you lovely people are motivation for me to at least write replies ;u;


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